THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
FRANK  J.  KLINGBERG 


IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 


IN  THE  PAST  AND  AT  PRESENT 


BY 
EDWARD  RAYMOND  TURNER 

Professor  of  European  History  in  the 
University  of  Michigan 


NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1919 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
THE  CENTUBY  Co. 


Published,  October,  1919 


PA 

9/o 


TO 
ELEANOR  BOWIE  TURNER 

AND 

E.  B.  T. 

IN  MST.  MEM. 


1327111 


PREFACE 

I  have  written  this  book  with  the  desire  of  helping 
to  bring  about  better  understanding  of  a  question 
which  is  very  troublesome  and  perplexing,  not  only 
to  the  Irish  and  the  English,  but,  less  directly,  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  a  matter  which  still 
creates  one  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  com- 
pletely good  relations  between  the  English-speaking 
peoples. 

In  America  Irish  matters  are  usually  discussed  by 
extremists;  and  with  all  deference  to  the  teaching  of 
writers  inspired  with  the  best  and  most  generous  pas- 
sion for  their  cause,  it  must  be  said  that  no  more  cor- 
rect judgment  can  be  made  about  Ireland  from  the 
excessive  denunciations  of  some  Sinn  Feiners  than 
would  come  from  the  notions  of  British  partisans  and 
tories. 

I  have  tried  to  write  an  account  which  considers 
all  the  principal  aspects  of  the  subject,  and  in  pre- 
senting both  sides  or  all  sides  I  have  often  used  the 
very  words  of  the  advocates  themselves,  though  I 
cannot  always  vouch  for  the  correctness  of  their 
opinions. 

Others  may,  if  they  desire,  tell  just  how  the  Irish 
question  should  be  settled,  but  then  I  do  not  think 
they  can  realize  how  complicated  and  difficult  that 


viii  PREFACE 

question  is.  Actually  the  settlement  has  been  going 
forward  for  some  time ;  more  time  is  required  to  make 
it  complete;  nor  can  that  completion  be  attained  by 
any  simple  expedient  or  at  once.  I  have  succeeded 
in  the  purpose  of  my  writing  if  I  bring  into  clearer 
view  what  the  difficulties  are. 

There  is  little  doubt,  I  think,  that  most  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Great  Britain  wish  Ireland  well  and  are  re- 
solved to  do  complete  justice,  that  they  are  quite 
willing  for  Ireland  to  have  Home  Rule.  Until  re- 
cently most  Irishmen  would  have  been  satisfied  with 
Home  Rule,  and  I  think  after  a  while  most  of  them 
will  again  be  reconciled  to  have  it.  As  for  com- 
plete separation,  England  will  not  and  cannot — as 
things  are  in  this  world — allow  it,  nor,  in  my  opinion, 
does  Ireland  really  need  it.  The  logic  of  geography 
and  of  history  and  of  things  existent  tends  now,  as 
for  centuries  past,  to  the  unification  of  the  British 
Isles,  with  such  self-determination  in  the  parts  as 
seems  desirable,  and  not  towards  separateness  and  dis- 
integration. 

It  may  be  that  I  have  done  my  task  ill;  but  so  far 
as  I  have  failed  it  is  not  because  of  bitterness  or 
malice.  I  have  wished  to  write  without  prejudice  and 
do  justice  to  all.  I  am  myself  partly  of  Irish  de- 
scent— south  Ireland — and  I  have  also  been  in  Eng- 
land sufficiently  to  know  the  great  and  admirable 
qualities  of  the  English  people,  which  are  now  better 
known  in  this  country  as  a  result  of  the  war. 

So  freely  have  I  used  the  work  of  others  who 


PREFACE  ix 

studied  the  subject  before  me  that  I  must  make  the 
most  generous  acknowledgment  in  this  place.  Parts 
of  the  writing,  however,  are  based  upon  my  own 
studies  and  observations  abroad. 

EDWARD  RAYMOND  TURNER. 
Ann  Arbor,  Michigan. 
June  1,  1919. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 
POWER  AND  SUBJECTION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     ANCIENT  IRELAND 3 

II     IRISH  CHRISTIANITY 18 

III     THE  ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND 32 

IV     CONQUEST  AND  TAKING  OF  THE  LAND      ...  56 

V     THE  NADIR  OF  SUBJECTION 81 

VI     GRATTAN'S  PARLIAMENT 95 

VII     IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION 106 

VIII     THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS 134 

PART  II 
THE  NEW  AGE:  ATONEMENT  AND  REDRESS 

I     THE  BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     ....  159 

II     DISESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  IRELAND  181 

III     LAND  LEGISLATION 188 

IV     THE  AGRICULTURAL  RENAISSANCE      ....  216 

V     THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND 226 

VI     THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE       ....  242 

VII     THE  ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     .      .      .  266 

VIII     ULSTER                                                                        .  293 


CONTENTS 

PART  III 
IRISH  NATIONALITY  AND  THE  WAR 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     IRISH    LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE    AND    THE 

IRISH  REVIVAL 315 

II     SINN  FEIN 349 

III     THE  EASTER  REBELLION 369 

IV     THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION  DURING  THE  WAR  .    396 
V     THE  QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION        ....    418 
VI     AMERICA,  GREAT  BRITAIN,  AND  THE  IRISH  QUES- 
TION          438 

VII     CONCLUSION 462 

INDEX  .   481 


PART  I 
POWER  AND  SUBJECTION 


IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 


CHAPTER  I 

ANCIENT   IRELAND 

On  Lough  Neagh's  bank,  as  the  fisherman  strays, 

When  the  clear  cold  eve  's  declining, 
He  sees  the  round  towers  of  other  days 

In  the  wave  beneath  him  shining. 
Thus  shall  memory  often,  in  dreams   sublime, 

Catch  a  glimpse  of  the  days  that  are  over; 
Thus,  sighing,  look  through  the  waves  of  time 

For  the  long-faded  glories  they  cover. 

Moore :     "Let  Erin  Remember  the  Days  of  Old," 
Irish  Melodies. 

Teach  your  Children  to  be  loyal  to  Mother  Eire. 

Smn  Fern  Leaflet,  1911. 

THE  old  and  more  proper  name  of  the  home  of 
the  Irish  people  was  Erin,  perhaps  from  a  root 
word  signifying  fat  or  fruitful,  because  of  the  fer- 
tility of  the  pastures  of  the  land.  As  the  Romans 
called  their  Hellenic  neighbors  Greed,  Greeks,  and 
affixed  to  them  that  name  in  the  usage  of  posterity,  so 
the  designation  of  this  island  was  for  the  outside 
world  at  least  changed  during  the  period  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian invasions,  when  the  Danes  corrupted  Erin, 


4  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  name  of  the  natives,  to  Ireland,,  a  name  which 
they  made.  Far  off  in  a  dim  and  scarce  visible  past 
there  lived  in  Erin,  as  in  other  places,  the  old  stone 
men,  and  after  them  the  new  stone  men  who  reared, 
as  they  did  in  France  and  Britain,  their  dolmens  or 
burial  houses,  which  stand  even  now  before  the  travel- 
ler in  gaunt  and  silent  witness  of  days  long  forgotten. 
Later  came  from  the  continent  of  Europe,  at  a  time 
not  known,  but  which  legend  assigns  to  the  year  1700 
B.  C.,  the  Goidels  or  Gaels.  Erin  was  peopled  by 
Goidelic  members  of  the  Celtic  race,  as  the  neighbor- 
ing island  was  settled  by  the  other  great  branch,  the 
Brythons. 

Of  early  Celtic  Ireland  we  have  slight  information, 
aside  from  legendary  accounts.  It  lay  off  on  the  rim 
of  the  world,  and  was  scantily  discerned  by  classical 
writers,  though  Ptolemy  described  it  better  than  Al- 
bion or  Britain.  Erin  was  known  to  the  Phenicians; 
and  Greek  writers  called  it  the  Sacred  Island,  lernis, 
lerne.  In  the  time  of  Tacitus  its  harbors  were  more 
renowned  than  those  of  Britain.  It  may  be  that  con- 
siderable commerce  w/as  carried  on  in  early  times,  and 
that  some  civilization  had  developed  there  by  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  era.  The  old  stories  of  the 
era  before  the  introduction  of  Christianity  have  to 
do  with  kings  who  fought  great  battles,  of  Cuchul- 
lain  of  Ulster,  of  Medb,  queen  of  Connaught,  of  the 
men  of  Leinster  who  must  pay  great  tribute,  of  Ul- 
stermen  who  made  voyages  to  Alban  or  Scotland,  of 
Ollamh  Fodla  who  established  the  meeting  of  noble§ 


ANCIENT  IRELAND  5 

and  learned  men  at  Tara,  and  of  Tuathal,  who  con- 
solidated the  monarchy,  and  formed  the  new  province 
of  Meath  to  be  the  demesne  of  the  over-kings  at  Tara. 
Legend  merges  into  history  about  the  time  of  the 
Romans.  As  afterwards  the  Germanic  barbarians 
who  conquered  the  western  provinces  of  the  Roman 
Empire  never  advanced  into  Erin,  so  the  Romans 
themselves  never  came  there  from  Britain,  though 
Tacitus  declares  that  Agricola,  his  father-in-law,  was 
wont  to  say  that  the  conquest  might  be  made  with 
one  legion,  and  that  it  would  be  well  for  the  Roman 
power  to  be  established  on  all  sides  and  "liberty  put 
away  out  of  sight."  When  Roman  power  was  de- 
clining in  Britain,  we  hear  much  of  the  Scots  who 
came  from  Erin  to  Britain  again  and  again  for  war- 
fare and  plunder,  and  of  Laeghaire  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, in  whose  time  the  work  of  Saint  Patrick  began, 
There  has  come  down  a  large  amount  of  old  Gaelic 
literature,  annals,  historical  and  genealogical  writ- 
ings, religious  and  ecclesiastical  pieces,  romances  and 
tales,  and  treatises  of  law,  medicine,  and  science,  from 
which  directly  or  indirectly  much  can  be  learned 
about  the  early  history  and  life  of  the  people.  The 
oldest  of  them  are  in  a  difficult  language,  much  of 
which  had  been  partly  forgotten,  until  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  when  a  Bavarian,  Kaspar 
Zeuss,  published  his  Grammatica  Celtica.  Using  the 
Irish  glosses,  or  explanations  which  Gaelic  teachers 
had  written  in  the  margins  or  between  the  lines  of 

i  "Agricola,"  c.  24. 


6  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Latin  texts  for  the  guidance  of  their  students,  he  re- 
covered the  lost  grammatical  forms  and  also  the  mean- 
ings of  numerous  words,  and  was  thus  the  founder  of 
Celtic  philology.  The  writings  are  in  poetry  or  in 
prose,  the  early  poetical  compositions  often  obscure, 
with  some  of  the  most  complicated  and  difficult  versi- 
fication ever  invented.  It  has  been  held  that  a  prim- 
itive form  of  writing  was  used  in-  Erin  in  very  early 
times,  but  these  letters,  the  so-called  oghams,  which 
are  largely  groups  of  parallel  lines,  are  by  most  critics 
traced  either  to  the  Roman  alphabet  or  to  the  Scandi- 
navian runes,  so  that  reading  and  writing  are  believed 
to  have  been  introduced  into  the  island  not  before  the 
time  when  Christianity  was  brought  there. 

The  character  of  early  Irish  culture  has  been  the 
subject  of  much  dispute.  In  later  days,  when  Ire- 
land was  unhappy  and  debased,  when  there  was  little 
in  contemporary  life  to  be  proud  of,  and  at  other 
times  when  hope  was  put  in  the  future,  ardent  spirits 
were  won-t  to  look  back  through  a  glow  of  patriotic 
romance  beyond  the  traditions  of  the  past,  and  they 
saw  a  golden  age  in  a  happy  island  of  the  west.  Re- 
cently, in  the  midst  of  the  Irish  revival  there  have 
been  writers,  such,  for  example,  as  Mrs.  Green,  who 
have  not  hesitated  to  ascribe  to  early  Irish  society 
an  excellence  and  a  fine  character  which  can  scarcely 
have  existed  anywhere  in  primitive  times.  Much  of 
what  these  writers  declare  may  have  been  so,  though 
probability  is  often  against  it,  and  their  belief  is  many 
times  founded  rather  upon  generous  feeling  and  pa- 


ANCIENT  IRELAND  7 

triotic  desire  than  painstaking  interpretation  of  the 
texts.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  until  recently  few  investigators  outside  of  Ire- 
land have  taken  interest  in  Irish  antiquities,  and  Eng- 
lish writers  either  had  scant  respect  for  Ireland  or 
based  their  accounts  upon  testimony  of  those  who 
wrote  of  Irishmen  as  degraded  savages  or  regarded 
them  as  inferior  and  wretched.  It  has  been  the  ardu- 
ous task  of  a  new  school  of  historians  to  study  the 
culture  of  Ireland  in  early  times  and  estimate  it  more 
truly,  as  well  as  to  discover  how  far  this  culture  was 
handed  down  in  the  following  ages.  In  controversies 
of  recent  years  there  has  been  one  party  declaring 
that  the  excellence  of  early  Irish  things  and  the  in- 
heritance from  those  times  give  to  Irishmen  a  char- 
acter which  renders  them,  perhaps,  the  wisest,  the 
liveliest,  and  the  best  in  the  British  Empire,  and  that 
before  the  Irish  people  lies  a  mission  to  develop  their 
type  of  civilization  and  give  it  to  the  modern  world. 

The  Gael  is  not  like  other  men;  the  spade  and  the  loom 
and  -the  sword  are  not  for  him.  But  a  destiny  more  glori- 
ous than  that  of  Rome,  more  glorious  than  that  of  Britain, 
awaits  him :  to  become  the  saviour  of  idealism  in  modern 
intellectual  and  social  life,  the  regenerator  and  rejuvenator 
of  the  literature  of  the  world,  the  instructor  of  the  nations, 
the  preacher  of  the  gospel  of  nature-worship,  hero-worship, 
God-worship — such  is  the  destiny  of  the  Gael.2 

Somewhere  I  have  seen  the  statement  -of  a  writer, 

2  Padraic  Pearse  .before  a  young  men's  literary  society  in  1897:  L.  G. 
Redmond-Howard,  Six  Days  of  the  Irish  Republic  (Boston,  1916),  p. 
131. 


8  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

that  it  is  the  speeches  of  the  Irish  members  which 
give  savor  to  the  parliamentary  debates  of  the  United 
Kingdom;  and  in  a  way  this  is  true.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  has  been  widely  said  that  as  the  past  has  been 
so  will  the  future  be;  the  Irishman  who  was  back- 
ward once  and  unable  to  get  for  himself  good  govern- 
ment, is  after  all  the  Irishman  of  the  present,  whom 
it  would  be  unwise  to  trust  with  Home  Rule.  Actu- 
ally, as  in  all  things,  the  truth  seems  to  lie  somewhere 
in  between  these  partisan  statements.  The  Gaels  of 
earlier  Ireland  lived  in  the  midst  of  conditions  which 
had  some  beauty  and  much  good  inherent  in  them, 
and  were  well  suited  to  the  times  when  they  devel- 
oped, but  which  were  rude  and  primitive  compared 
with  what  came  later  on,  and  were  abandoned  gener- 
ally as  peoples  rose  upward  in  the  scale  of  culture. 

The  old  Gaels  were  organized  in  tribal  communi- 
ties, where  family  relationship  was  the  strongest  of 
all  ties.  Just  as  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century  of 
the  Teutonist  school  often  took  from  Tacitus  an  ac- 
count of  early  Germanic  communities  consisting  of 
democratic  assemblies  of  freemen,  with  their  families 
and  dependents,  so  now  there  are  Irish  writers  who 
describe  the  Gaelic  tribal  system  as  something  excel- 
lent and  democratic,  giving  freest  play  to  develop- 
ment of  national  character. 

The  law  with  them  was  the  law  of  the  people.  They  never 
lost  their  trust  in  it.  Hence  they  never  exalted  a  central 
authority,  for  their  law  needed  no  such  sanction.  While 
the  code  was  one  for  the  whole  race,  the  administration  on 


ANCIENT  IRELAND  9 

the  other  hand  was  divided  into  the  widest  possible  range 
of  self-governing  communities,  which  were  bound  together 
in  a  willing  federation.  The  forces  of  union  were  not  ma- 
terial but  spiritual.  .  .  .  Such  an  instinct  of  national  life 
was  neither  rude  nor  contemptible.3 

But  such  an  interpretation  must  be  based  on  fancy 
and  desire  and  modern  feeling  rather  than  on  careful 
study  of  the  past ;  and  it  is  not  what  the  Brehon  Laws 
seem  to  show.  One  who  did  make  such  a  study  says : 
"The  social  system  was  aristocratic:  in  no  case  have 
we  evidence  that  there  was  a  community  governed  by 
an  assembly  of  representatives  without  a  permanent 
head."4  Each  group  was  governed  by  a  chief,  who 
was  always  a  member  of  the  ruling  family ;  though  it 
should  be  said  that  the  successor  was  often  elected 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  ruler,  being  called  then  the 
tanist,  or  second  in  authority. 

Erin  was  divided  among  groups  of  people,  large  or 
small.  The  smaller  were  ruled  by  flaiths  or  chiefs, 
the  larger  by  ris  or  kings,  while  all  of  them  were  in 
some  sort  under  the  ard-ri  or  great  king,  who  had  a 
sovereignty  over  the  lesser  kings,  they  being  obliged 
to  attend  him  in  war  and  pay  tribute.  That  is  to 
say,  there  was  the  ard-ri  at  Tara  in  Meath ;  under  him 
there  were  the  kings  of  Ulster,  Leinster,  Munster, 
Connaught,  and  Meath ;  under  them  were  lesser  kings, 
beneath  whom  there  were  chieftains — in  each  case  the 
lesser  being  bound  to  the  greater  by  war-service  and 

s  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green,  Irish  Nationality   (London,  1911),  pp.  14,  15, 
*  P.  W.  Joyce,  A  Short  History  of  Ireland  (London,  1904),  p.  59. 


10  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

tribute.  Allegiance  from  less  to  greater  was  main- 
tained by  taking  hostages :  "He  is  not  a  king,"  says 
the  Brehon  Law,  "who  has  not  hostages  in  fetters."  5 
Whatever  may  be  thought  about  the  working  of  such 
a  system,  it  is  evident  from  the  old  Gaelic  tales  and 
romances  that  along  with  what  was  noble  and  splen- 
did there  was  much  tribal  warfare  and  absence  of  set- 
tled conditions.  The  same  story  from  the  tribal 
period  of  English  history,  in  Anglo-Saxon  times,  is 
better  known  to  a  great  many  readers. 

The  people  were  divided  into  various  ranks  and 
classes:  kings  and  nobles,  freemen,  bondsmen  with 
few  rights,  and  slaves  with  none.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  in  Anglo-Saxon  times  there  was  a  flourish- 
ing slave  trade  between  England  and  Erin,  some- 
thing that  was  not  brought  to  an  end  until  after  the 
Norman  Conquest.  Generally  speaking,  the  lower 
classes  were  bound  to  those  above  them  by  payments 
and  service.  The  service  was  work  of  various  kinds ; 
the  payments  were  in  cattle  or  provisions  or  articles 
made  by  hand. 

Within  the  tribal  community  the  members  were 
bound  together  by  common  customs,  and  to  greater  or 
less  extent  by  feeling  of  kinship.  Each  member  bore 
part  of  the  obligations  of  the  tribe,  such  as  contribu- 
ting to  the  support  of  the  childless  old,  and  no  mem- 
ber was  free  to  make  contracts  affecting  the  tribe. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  whole  community  was  respon- 
sible for  each  one  of  its  members,  and  might  be  liable 

6  Ibid.,  p.  64. 


ANCIENT  IRELAND  11 

for  his  debts  or  fines.  As  far  back  as  one  may  go, 
there  was  among  these  people  some  private  owner- 
ship of  land,  but  for  the  most  part  land  belonged,  at 
least  in  theory,  not  to  individuals  but  to  the  tribe. 
Originally,  it  would  seem,  there  had  been  collective 
ownership,  and  land  had  been  the  common  property 
of  the  members  of  the  community.  Within  a  tribe 
some  of  the  land  was  held  by  the  chieftain,  and  some 
as  private  property,  but  the  bulk  of  it  was  tribe  land, 
the  arable  being  divided  up  among  the  tribesmen  from 
time  to  time,  and  the  grazing  land  and  waste  held  in 
common.  Thus,  when  a  member  who  held  part  of 
the  tribe  land  died,  his  land  did  not  go  to  his  chil- 
dren, but  was  divided  up  among  the  male  adult  mem- 
bers of  the  community.  This  was  the  custom  of 
gavelkind,  once  widespread  over  Europe,  and  long 
existent  in  English  Kent.  Hence  a  man  could  not 
alienate  his  land  outside  the  tribe,  and  there  were 
tribal  obligations  concerning  the  management  and 
disposal  of  it.  Within  these  old  restrictions  a  man 
might  do  with  his  land  as  he  pleased.  This  communal 
or  tribal  land  system  is  one  of  the  important  factors 
in  the  history  of  Ireland.  In  early  times  such  a 
system  had  existed  in  most  primitive  communities  of 
the  so-called  Aryan  peoples;  it  was  in  England 
among  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  traces  of  it  long  con- 
tinued. But  it  persisted  in  Ireland  far  longer  than 
in  England ;  and  one  of  the  tragedies  of  Irish  history 
is  the  forcible  overthrow  of  the  Irish  system  by  the 
alien  system  of  the  English  invaders,  and  the  wrongs 


12  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

and  hardships  to  the  natives  who  scarce  understood 
what  took  place. 

The  old  Irish  system  is  known  very  largely  from 
the  ancient  Law  of  the  Brehons,  or  professional  law- 
yers. Very  influential,  as  time  went  on  they  tended 
to  form  an  hereditary  legal  class,  giving  judgment  in 
accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  land. 

Call  ye   now   the   Brehons   in, 
And  let  the  plea  begin.6 

They  had  collections  of  laws  by  which  they  regulated 
their  decisions  and  taught  their  scholars.  Many  of 
these  collections  have  been  preserved;  their  content  is 
known  now  as  the  Brehon  Law. 

Wherever  the  tribal  system  flourishes  the  idea  of 
the  state  is  little  developed.  Constant  warfare  and 
tribal  dispute  make  it  difficult  to  establish  the  idea  of 
a  central  authority.  Accordingly  there  are  in  early 
times  no  offences  against  the  state,  or  crimes,  as  they 
would  now  be  called,  but  only  against  individuals  or 
groups.  Therefore  wrongs  were  not  punished  or 
avenged  by  the  state:  the  injured  person  or  his  kins- 
men sought  redress.  In  Erin,  as  elsewhere  at  first, 
the  law  of  retaliation  prevailed,  "an  eye  for  an  eye 
and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth."  But  in  all  primitive  soci- 
eties and  among  all  early  "Aryan"  peoples,  as  ideas 
of  peace  slowly  develop,  retaliation  gradually  gives 
way  to  compensation.  The  injured  party  might  take 

6  Here   and   in   several  other  places   I   quote  Sir   Samuel  Ferguson's 
The  Welshmen  of  Tirawley. 


ANCIENT  IRELAND  13 

into  his  own  hands  the  law,  but  generally  he  referred 
his  case  to  a  brehon.  The  penalty  awarded  went  to 
the  person  injured  or  his  kinsmen.  For  homicide  or 
bodily  hurt  the  fine  was  known  as  an  eric: 

Then  the  Brehons  to  MacWilliam  Burke  decreed 
An  eric  upon  Clan  Barrett  for  the  deed; 
And  the  Lynott's  share  of  the  fine, 
As  foster-father,  was  nine 
Ploughlands  and  nine  score  kine. 

The  amount  of  the  penalty  varied  with  the  character 
of  the  injury  and  the  rank  of  the  person  injured,  and 
there  were  comprehensive  tables  or  codes  of  what 
should  be  paid  in  a  given  case.  In  later  days  Eng- 
lish observers  in  Ireland,  like  the  poet  Spenser,  fa- 
miliar as-  they  were  with  the  English  common  law, 
denounced  this  system  of  laws  of  compensation. 

Eudoxm:  What  is  that  which  you  call  the  Brehon 
law?  .  .  . 

Irenaeus:  It  is  a  rule  of  right  unwritten,  but  delivered 
by  tradition  from  one  to  another,  in  which  oftentimes  there 
appeareth  great  shew  of  equity,  in  determining  the  right 
betweene  party  and  party,  but  in  many  things  repugning 
quite  both  to  God's  law,  and  man's :  As  for  example  in  the 
case  of  murder,  the  Brehon,  that  is  their  judge,  will  com- 
pound betweene  the  murderer,  and  the  friends  of  the  party 
murdered,  which  prosecute  the  action,  that  the  malefactor 
shall  give  unto  them,  or  to  the  child,  or  wife  of  him  that  is 
slain  a  recompence,  which  they  call  an  Eriach:  By  which 
vilde  law  of  theirs,  many  murders  amongst  them  are  made 
up,  and  smothered  .  .  . 


14  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Eudoxus:     This  is  a  most  wicked  law  indeed  .  .   .7 

The  same  system  was  well  known,  however,  not 
only  among  peoples  of  antiquity  but  among  the  Ger- 
manic tribes,  and  flourishing  in  England  in  the  An- 
glo-Saxon period,  it  lingered  on  in  some  faint  traces 
for  a  long  while  after. 

The  public  life  of  the  Gaelic  people  was  carried  on 
in  assemblies  large  and  small.  There  was  the  Fes 
or  convention  held  from  time  to  time  at  Tara,  at- 
tended by  the  provincial  kings  and  chieftains,  the 
leading  people  of  Erin;  and  there  were  the  aenachs 
or  fairs  held  in  the  districts  every  year  or  so, 
and  attended  by  all  classes  there.  At  these  fairs, 
which  had  their  origin,  probably,  in  the  celebration 
of  funeral  games,  and  were  often  held  at  the  ancient 
cemeteries,  the  Druids  made  their  sacrifices,  and  in 
later  times  Christian  rites  were  celebrated,  meetings 
were  held  at  which  disputes  were  heard,  laws  were 
promulgated  or  publicly  read  again,  and  such  simple 
matters  of  government  and  administration  as  then 
were  carried  on  were  transacted  by  the  proper  per- 
sons. Here  also  games  were  celebrated,  parents  met 
and  arranged  the  marriages  of  their  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, which  were  here  performed,  and  markets  were 
held  for  the  wares  of  the  country.  These  fairs  flour- 
ished in  olden  times,  but  some  of  them  continued  into 
the  Middle  Ages. 

The  religion  of  the  Gaels  before  Christianity  was 

7  Edmund  Spenser,  A  View  of  the  State  of  Ireland,  etc.  (1596),  in 
A  Collection  of  Tracts  and  Treatises  .  .  .  of  Ireland  (Dublin,  1890), 
i.  421. 


ANCIENT  IRELAND  15 

spread  over  the  island  was  a  religion  in  which  forces 
or  objects  of  nature  were  worshipped.  "The  religion 
of  the  Celestial  Fire,  or  light,  predominated;  the  sun 
and  the  moon  were  the  principal  objects  of  wor- 
ship." In  Christian  times  this  usage  continued  with 
forms  changed,  and  it  is  thought  that  the  sacred  fire 
of  St.  Bridget  at  Kildare,  which  burned  until  Henry 
III  caused  it  to  be  extinguished,  and  which,  rekindled, 
burned  until  the  time  of  Henry  VIII,  was  an  adapta- 
tion of  this  very  thing.  Along  with  this  and  beneath 
it,  as  elsewhere,  were  survivals  of  an  earlier  stage,  the 
period  of  animism  or  polydemonism.  Among  the  old 
Gaels  there  was  widespread  belief  in  the  existence 
of  spirits  or  demons,  animating  everything.  They 
could  be  controlled  or  dealt  with  by  formulas,  incanta- 
tions, or  magic,  which  were  known  only  to  the  wiz- 
ards. By  obtaining  information  from  the  demons 
whom  they  controlled,  the  wizards  became  fortune- 
tellers, as  they  became  astrologers  through  their  study 
of  the  elements  and  the  heavens.  These  wizards  were 
the  famous  Druids ;  and  the  old  Irish  religion  is  some- 
times called  Druidism,  like  that  of  Britain  and  Gaul. 
In  Erin  Druids  were  thought  to  possess  tremendous 
powers,  working  spells,  chanting  incantations,  driv- 
ing men  mad,  if  they  would,  and  foretelling  events  yet 
to  come.  It  should  be  said  that  in  early  times  the 
Brehons  were  members  of  the  Druid  class,  though 
afterward  they  became  quite  distinct. 

s  Arthur  Ua  Clerigh,  History  of  Ireland  to  the  Coming  of  Henry  II 
(London),  i.  185. 


16  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

It  would  seem  also  that  before  the  Christian  period 
there  had  begun  to  develop  what  may  be  discerned 
better  in  classical  countries  and  Germanic  and  Scan- 
dinavian lands,  anthropomorphic  conception  of  the 
forces  or  objects  of  nature;  that  is,  the  worship  of  sun, 
moon,  mountains,  winds,  streams,  as  gods,  strange 
beings,  monsters,  very  powerful,  it  may  be,  and 
often  strange  and  uncanny,  but  so  far  as  they  were 
clearly  conceived,  after  all  essentially  like  men  and 
women  or  the  animals  familiar  to  them.  Old  re- 
ligions had  much  of  this:  Zeus  and  Hera,  beautiful, 
splendid,  and  strong,  who  ruled  gods  and  men  from 
their  palace  high  on  Olympus;  Pluto,  gloomy  in 
Hades,  and  Cerberus,  his  three-headed  dog;  Thor  the 
god-warrior  who  hurled  his  hammer  with  giant 
strength  against  the  giants  of  frost;  the  Valkyrs  who 
carried  valiant  men  from  stricken  fields  to  Valhalla; 
Grendel  the  monster  whom  Beowulf  slew,  and  Gren- 
del's  more  terrible  mother;  the  witches,  the  fairies,  the 
elves,  the  giants,  the  goblins.  Everyone  knows  how 
much  of  all  this  has  come  down  faintly  in  some  way 
even  to  the  present.  Such  deities  and  eery  things  are 
mentioned  in  the  old  Irish  tales.  There  were  the  war 
goddesses  who  shrieked  over  the  heads  of  the  heroes 
in  battle,  putting  fury  into  their  hearts.  There  was 
Mannanan  Mac  Lir,  who  gave  name  to  the  Isle  of 
Man;  and  Brigit  the  goddess  of  wisdom.  Later  on 
in  Christian  Ireland  there  persisted  what  had  come 
from  the  early  time,  a  general  belief  in  lesser  beings, 
who  lived  in  rocks  and  in  hills,  where  they  had  palaces 


ANCIENT  IRELAND  17 

rare  and  splendid:  fairies,  demons,  goblins,  and 
ghosts.  A  female  fairy  was  a  banshee,,  and  there 
are  now  living  people  who  believe  they  have  heard  the 
banshee's  cry.  There  was  some  belief  in  a  place  of 
perpetual  youth  and  everlasting  peace.  Some 
thought  it  deep  in  the  earth;  some  put  it  far  out  in 
the  ocean,  calling  it  O 'Brazil.  In  the  era  of  the  great 
discoveries,  when  geography  was  ill-understood, 
Brazil  was  the  name  given  to  part  of  the  new  world 
found  in  the  west. 


CHAPTER  II 

IRISH    CHRISTIANITY 

Irish  Ireland,  if  the  ideal  be  realised,  will,  please  God,  in 
the  twentieth  century  be  the  Irish  Ireland  of  the  sixth, 
seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  centuries — the  Ireland  that  will 
not  only  guard  with  jealous  care  the  treasure  of  the  Faith- 
gift  within  her  own  four  seas,  but  the  Ireland  that  will  send 
her  best-beloved  sons  abroad,  to  carry  the  standard  of  the 
Cross  to  pagan  shores,  and  set  up  churches  of  the  ancient 
Faith  amid  the  ruins  of  modern  paganism. 

Rev.    Gerald    O'Nolan,    of   Maynooth:     Belfast 
Irish  News,  December  2,  1912. 

ANEW  and  splendid  period  in  Irish  history 
comes  after  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 
It  had  been  brought  into  Erin  before  the  coming  of 
St.  Patrick,  but  with  his  labors  the  movement  is  al- 
ways associated  now.  He  was  born  in  Scotland  or 
Gaul,  it  is  not  certain  which.  A  boy  of  sixteen,  he 
was  taken  captive  and  sold  as  a  slave  in  Erin.  For 
six  years  under  a  hard  master  he  kept  sheep  in  a  bleak 
and  lonely  place.  After  a  while,  when  he  had  learned 
well  the  language  of  the  people,  he  escaped ;  and  pres- 
ently, brooding  much  upon  what  he  had  seen,  resolved 
to  devote  his  life  to  their  conversion.  After  much 
preparation  he  went  forth,  possibly  with  the  benedic-* 
tion  of  the  Pope,  and  in  432  landed  on  the  east  coast 

18 


IRISH  CHRISTIANITY  19 

near  Wicklow.  He  was  then  about  forty-five,  of 
commanding  presence,  in  the  full  vigor  of  his  man- 
hood. After  some  difficulties  at  the  start,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  his  task  beyond  expectation.  In  all  the  his- 
tory of  the  faith,  it  is  said,  there  is  no  instance  of  a 
missionary  so  successful  as  St.  Patrick.  No  people 
received  Christianity  in  so  short  a  space  of  time  as  the 
Irish.  Understanding,  perhaps,  the  tribal  and  fam- 
ily feeling  of  the  Gaels  and  their  devotion  to  their 
chiefs,  St.  Patrick  addressed  himself  first  to  the  kings 
and  chiefs,  knowing  that  if  the  great  men  were  con- 
verted their  people  would  easily  follow.  In  433  he 
proceeded  to  Tara,  and  on  Easter  effected  the  con- 
version of  the  ard-ri  Laeghaire.  In  the  course  of  his 
long  mission  the  greater  part  of  the  Irish  became 
Christians,  at  least  nominally,  and  the  land  was  filled 
with  churches.  He  died  about  465,  some  say,  in  the 
seventy-eighth  year  of  his  age. 

During  the  lifetime  of  St.  Patrick  there  arose  in 
Erin  an  extraordinary  religious  fervor,  which  con- 
tinued for  a  great  while  thereafter,  profoundly  affect- 
ing that  country  and  many  others  nearby.  Holy  men 
and  great  religious  leaders  were  succeeded  by  others 
as  holy,  and  the  best  spirits  took  part  in  the  move- 
ment. Churches  and  monasteries  were  founded, 
often  by  the  gift  of  chieftains  or  kings,  and  protected 
and  fostered  by  them.  Great  numbers  of  persons 
entered  the  religious  life.  Some  of  them  taught  the 
people  and  performed  the  religious  ministrations  of 
the  neighborhood;  some  adopted  a  life  of  contempla- 


20  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

tion  and  prayer,  with  labor  to  support  themselves,  in 
places  lonely  and  remote.  The  eastern  ideal  of  soli- 
tary monastic  life,  remote  from  associations  with  the 
world,  came  also  to  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland, 
and,  as  readers  of  Kingsley  may  remember,  there 
were  numerous  establishments  of  anchorites  on  the 
small,  rocky  isles  along  the  coast. 

At  first  the  organization  of  the  Irish  church  was 
tribal,  like  the  other  organizations  of  their  life. 
Bishops  and  priests  had  no  territorial  jurisdiction  over 
dioceses  and  parishes  as  they  had  later  on,  but  were 
attached  to  tribes,  clans,  or  religious  and  monastic 
communities.  The  obligations  of  the  laity  to  the 
clergy  were  somewhat  like  those  of  people  to  chiefs: 
they  owed  payment  of  tithes,  firstlings,  and  first  fruits. 
The  head  of  a  monastery  was  abbot  and  also  chief  of 
the  community  around  him.  As  with  other  offices 
in  Irish  tribal  organization,  ecclesiastical  dignities 
tended  to  stay  in  the  same  families  for  generations. 

The  religion  brought  by  St.  Patrick  and  his  prede- 
cessors was  the  Christianity  of  the  western  Roman 
world,  but,  as  is  well  known,  there  soon  developed  a 
difference  important  in  the  history  of  Ireland  and  of 
England.  The  incorrect  western  computation  of  the 
date  of  Easter  was  brought  in,  shortly  before  it  was 
abandoned  by  Rome,  and  soon  the  lands  with  Irish 
Christianity  celebrated  Easter  at  a  different  time  from 
that  used  in  the  Roman  church.  In  England  the  con- 
troversy between  Roman  and  Irish  Christianity,  in- 
volving as  it  did  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  was  vir- 


IRISH  CHRISTIANITY  21 

tually  decided  at  the  Synod  of  Whitby  in  664.  In 
Ireland  the  change  began  earlier,  but  since  some  of 
the  religious  leaders  there  clung  to  that  which  their 
predecessors  had  established,  the  alteration  was  more 
gradual,  some  parts  of  the  country  not  yielding  until 
the  early  part  of  the  eighth  century,  after  which  Ro- 
man usages  were  generally  adopted. 

The  old  Gaelic  Christianity  of  Erin  is  glorious  be- 
cause of  the  splendid  development  of  schools  and  edu- 
cation which  accompanied  it,  and  even  more  because 
of  the  memorable  missionary  effort  which  went  forth 
after  Ireland  had  been  brought  to  the  faith.  From 
the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  schools  appeared  in 
large  numbers,  many  of  them  monastic,  and  they  at- 
tracted great  numbers  of  students.  At  one  time,  it 
is  said,  there  were  3,000  of  them  with  St.  Finnen  at 
Clonard;  though  one  mistrusts  all  numbers  in  med- 
ieval accounts.  Some  believe  that  these  schools  were 
better  than  anything  of  the  kind  to  be  found  in  the 
West  at  this  time,  -and  that  they  were  in  some  fashion 
prototypes  of  the  universities  later.  Their  renown 
is  attested  by  the  crowds  of  foreigners  who  came  to 
them,  many  from  England,  some  from  France,  and 
even  from  Italy  and  Egypt.  The  regard  in  which 
they  were  held  is  evident  from  the  correspondence  of 
Alcuin  and  also  the  History  of  Bede.  Theology  was 
studied,  and  Latin  and  Greek  and  even  Hebrew  were 
cultivated,  while  there  was  instruction  in  Gaelic  gram- 
mar and  literature,  history,  arithmetic,  astronomy, 
geometry,  and  music.  Besides  the  monastic  schools 


22  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

there  were  secular  schools  under  laymen,  where  the 
professions  of  medicine  and  law  were  taught,  this 
teaching  often  being  hereditary  in  the  same  families 
for  generations.  Erin  came  to  be  renowned  for  her 
learning  and  civilization.  "The  classic  tradition,  to 
all  appearance  dead  in  Europe,  burst  out  into  full 
bloom  in  the  Isle  of  the  Saints,  and  the  Renaissance 
began  in  Ireland  seven  hundred  years  before  it  was 
known  in  Italy.  During  three  centuries  Ireland  was 
the  asylum  of  the  Higher  Learning,  which  took  sanc- 
tuary from  the  uncultured  states  of  Europe.  At  one 
time  Armagh,  the  religious  capital  of  Christian  Ire- 
land, was  the  metropolis  of  civilization."  1  It  has 
been  said  that  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  prob- 
ably no  one  in  western  Europe  spoke  Greek  who  was 
not  Irish  or  taught  by  an  Irishman. 

The  Erin  which  welcomed  strangers  to  her  schools 
and  religious  establishments  also  sent  forth  her  sons 
and  disciples  to  carry  religion  and  civilization  to  lands 
round  about.  In  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  cen- 
turies Irishmen  were  the  greatest  and  most  successful 
missionaries  in  Europe.  Homesick  and  longing  for 
their  own  land  often,  they  went  forth  for  the  glory  of 
God.  "My  country,"  said  one  of  them,  "is  where  I  can 
gather  the  largest  harvest  for  Christ."  2  St.  Columba 
went  to  lona,  where  a  great  monastery  became  the 
source  of  missionary  effort  in  lands  nearby.  There 
was  the  north  country  of  the  other  island,  known  of 

1  Clerigh,  quoting  Darmesteter,  p.  34*. 
sderigh,  p.  345. 


IRISH  CHRISTIANITY  23 

old  as  Alban,  partly  colonized  by  Scots  or  Gaels  from 
Erin.  From  them  later  on  it  came  to  be  known  as 
Scotland:  the  name  Scotia  belonged  originally  to  Ire- 
land, but  about  the  eleventh  century  the  name  went 
to  the  country  now  known  as  Scotland,  and  the  parent 
country  lost  it.  Thither  from  lona  went  Columba 
and  his  monks  and  converted  the  Scots  and  the  Picts 
of  the  Highlands.  His  disciples,  notably  Aidan,  con- 
verted the  greater  part  of  the  people  of  England  and 
Wales,  England  thus  owing  a  large  part  of  her  Chris- 
tianity to  Irish  monks  who  labored  there  before  the 
arrival  in  the  south  of  St.  Augustine  from  Rome.  It 
was  under  the  tuition  of  Irish  monks  at  Glastonbury 
that  the  career  of  the  great  Dunstan  was  begun. 
Many  missionaries  went  to  the  continent,  the  most 
eminent  being  Columbanus,  who  with  twelve  com- 
panions left  Ireland  and  founded  the  monastery  of 
Luxeuil  in  Burgundy,  whence  •  other  foundations 
branched  off,  and  from  which  the  faith  was  spread  into 
Switzerland,  Italy,  France,  and  afterwards  Germany. 
Before  the  fervor  of  the  missionaries  ended,  some  of 
them  had  gone  to  Jerusalem,  some  to  Carthage,  and 
some  as  far  north  as  Iceland.  Long  afterwards,  in 
many  a  town  of  Italy,  Germany,  and  France  Irish- 
men were  held  as  patron  saints.  The  revival  of  learn- 
ing in  Europe  was  owing  in  no  small  degree  to  their 
efforts. 

No  church  of  any  land  has  so  noble  a  record  in  the  aston- 
ishing work  of  its  teachers,  as  they  wandered  over  the  ruined 
provinces  of  the  empire  among  the  pagan  tribes  of  the  in- 


24  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

vaders.  In  the  Highlands  they  taught  the  Picts  to  compose 
hymns  in  their  own  tongue ;  in  a  monastery  founded  by  them 
in  Yorkshire  was  trained  the  first  English  poet  in  the  new 
England ;  at  St.  Gall  they  drew  up  a  Latin-German  dic- 
tionary for  the  Germans  of  the  upper  Rhine  and  Switzer- 
land, and  even  devised  new  German  words  to  express  the 
new  ideas  of  Christian  civilisation ;  near  Florence  one  of 
their  saints  taught  the  natives  how  to  turn  the  course  of  a 
river/ 


3 


During  this  period  art  and  culture,  which  had 
long  been  developing  in  Ireland,  came  to  higher  per- 
fection. From  very  ancient  times  the  pagan  Irish 
were  skilled  in  metal  work,  bronze,  silver,  gold,  and 
enamel.  This  work  was  improved  in  Christian  times, 
reaching  its  culmination  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries,  after  which,  like  other  things  Irish,  it  de- 
clined with  the  decadence  of  Gaelic  life.  The  best 
sculpture  was  done  in  Christian  times,  and  is  seen  in 
the  Celtic  crosses  with  their  rings  binding  the  arms 
of  the  crosses  together.  Many  of  them  are  orna- 
mented with  very  great  skill.  Ornamentation  and 
illumination  of  manuscripts  were  carried  to  a  won- 
drous degree  of  perfection,  attaining  highest  excel- 
lence in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries.  This  was 
mainly  the  work  of  ecclesiastics,  and  was  done  mostly 
in  monasteries,  as  elsewhere.  The  designs  are  very 
delicate  and  extremely  complicated  sometimes.  The 
Book  of  Kells,  which  is  a  manuscript  of  the  four  gos- 
pels, amazes  them  who  behold  it.  Dating,  perhaps, 

s  Mrs.  Green,  pp.  53,  54, 


IRISH  CHRISTIANITY  25 

from  the  seventh  century,  it  is  one  of  the  best  speci- 
mens of  ancient  pen-work  in  existence:  "the  most  as- 
tonishing book  of  the  Four  Gospels  which  exists  in 
the  world."  4  The  Irish  missionaries  took  this  art 
with  them  wherever  they  went,  and  exquisite  examples 
of  their  handiwork  are  preserved  in  many  libraries 
abroad. 

The  Gaels  were  celebrated  musicians  from  very 
early  times.  Music  also  was  further  developed  by  the 
church,  missionaries  and  ecclesiastics  particularly  de- 
lighting in  the  harp.  There  were  also  the  tympan,  a 
stringed  instrument,  and  the  bagpipe.  The  music 
was  undoubtedly  simple,  but  it  has  been  very  highly 
praised,  and  some  of  the  airs  have  not  often  been 
equalled  since.  Enjoyment  of  music  is  thought  to 
have  been  very  general:  young  girls  were  wont  to 
accompany  their  spinning  with  songs,  there  were  milk- 
ing-songs,  and  the  plowman  soothed  his  horse  with 
plaintive  plow-whistles.  During  the  best  period  Irish 
masters  were  much  sought  abroad,  and  the  music  of 
Wales  and  other  countries  was  developed  by  Irish 
teachers.  All  through  the  Middle  Ages  and  down 
into  modern  times  Irish  music  continued.  In  course 
of  time  many  of  the  airs  were  perceived  to  be  plaintive 
and  sad  and  in  minor  key,  the  outcome,  as  in  Russia, 
perhaps,  of  downfall  and  long-continued  oppression. 
Many  pieces  were  preserved  in  memory,  and  handed 
down  by  tradition.  Not  until  long  after  were  collec- 
tions made.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 

4  Joyce,  quoting  J.  O.  Westwood,  p.  105. 


26  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

tury  Thomas  Moore  composed  his  exquisite  Irish 
Melodies  to  some  of  the  old  Irish  airs. 

The  fine  old  Celtic  culture,  stimulated  and  devel- 
oped by  the  influence  of  Christianity,  might  well  have 
developed  into  something  still  more  important  to  the 
world;  for  if  Ireland  was  not  a  large  island,  so  that 
the  basis  of  its  civilization  was  necessarily  small,  yet 
that  civilization  might  have  spread  further  and  fur- 
ther, as  it  had  begun  to  do,  and  affected  western  Eu- 
rope far  more  profoundly.  That  we  never  can  know. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Irish  civilization  and  influence 
were  not  allowed  to  develop  as  they  would.  "The 
early  history  of  Ireland  is  a  story  of  arrested  evolu- 
tion," said  one  who  loved  it  and  studied  it  well.5 
There  began  now  a  series  of  invasions,  disturbances, 
and  misfortunes,  which  have  thrust  Erin  back  and 
kept  her  down  even  to  the  present. 

In  early  times  there  was  a  tribal  England  as  well 
as  a  tribal  Ireland,  and  each  one  in  the  midst  of  dis- 
order and  warfare  was  stricken  by  barbarian  invasion. 
Each  one  later  recovered.  Then  to  England  came 
her  greatest  disaster,  complete  conquest  at  the  hands 
of  the  Normans,  with  long  ages  of  tyranny  and  misery 
for  the  masses  of  the  people.  But  in  the  end  con- 
querors merged  with  conquered,  and  there  being  no 
more  conquest  by  alien  masters,  after  a  while  Eng- 
land went  her  way  prosperous  and  peaceful,  on  the 
road  to  imperial  power.  When,  however,  Ireland 
had  recovered  from  the  first  invasion,  she  was  struck 

6  Clerigh,  preface. 


IRISH  CHRISTIANITY  27 

again  and  again  afterwards  by  alien  enemies,  who  for 
centuries  did  not  conquer  completely,  but  were  always 
strong  enough  to  destroy  her  best  chances  for  hap- 
piness and  national  growth.  She  showed,  it  is  true, 
amazing  power  to  absorb  them,  but  scarcely  was  she 
about  to  merge  within  her  one  set  of  intruders  when 
the  work  was  ruined  by  the  coming  of  others.  This 
is  what  gives  such  permanent  and  enduring  interest 
to  the  story  of  ancient  Erin  and  old  Irish  culture: 
less  than  three  centuries  after  St.  Patrick,  Ireland's 
golden  age — whatever  may  have  been  its  defects, 
passed  for  unutterable  time,  and  has  only  begun  to 
reappear  in  the  last  generation. 

First  came  the  Northmen  and  Danes.  As  Ger- 
manic barbarians  overran  the  western  provinces  of 
the  Roman  Empire  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
so  the  new  countries  of  the  west  were  scourged  from 
the  eighth  to  the  tenth  by  Scandinavian  barbarians 
from  the  north.  Frankland,  Italy,  Normandy,  Eng- 
land— the  story  is  well  known,  with  all  of  its  horror 
and  destruction.  In  795  Norwegian  pirates  first  ap- 
peared off  the  Irish  coast,  and  there  for  two  cen- 
turies Norsemen  and  Danes  came  again  and  again. 
Sometimes  they  were  badly  defeated;  but  the  Gaels, 
disunited  in  separate  tribes,  were  ill  prepared  to  repel 
them.  The  principal  ports  were  seized  and  held  by 
the  Danes,  and  Dublin  became  their  great  fortress 
and  center  of  power.  The  result  was  not  wholly  bad, 
for  in  course  of  time  the  invaders  were  more  famous 
for  commerce  than  war.  From  of  old  there  had  been 


28  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

trade  routes  from  Erin  to  Gaul  and  to  Spain.  For 
a  while  they  were  stopped  by  terror  of  the  northern 
pirates,  but  presently  the  trading  was  developed  by 
Northmen,  and  Ireland  became  the  center  of  a  com- 
merce more  thriving  than  ever.  None  the  less  for  a 
long  time  material  civilization  suffered  much.  Every- 
where monasteries  were  plundered  and  destroyed. 
There  was  terrible  fighting  against  the  intruders,  and 
also  much  fighting  between  the  various  tribes  of  the 
Irish  themselves.  Indeed,  from  this  time,  some  see  a 
deterioration  of  character  because  of  the  terrible  ex- 
periences which  came  to  the  people.  One  Danish  in- 
trusion followed  another  like  successive  waves  of  the 
sea,  and  it  may  often  have  seemed  that  the  Irish  would 
be  completely  overrun.  But  as  Alfred  saved  Eng- 
land from  Danish  power,  so  there  rose  up  in  Erin  a 
mighty  hero  and  king  who  crushed  the  invaders  for  a 
while  and,  maybe,  saved  the  country  from  conquest. 
This  was  the  famous  Brian  Boru. 

In  England  before  the  Norman  Conquest  there 
went  on  steadily  among  the  German  invaders  the 
process  of  uniting  the  many  little  tribal  kingdoms 
into  a  smaller  number  of  larger  kingdoms  and  then  a 
long  struggle  between  three  large  kingdoms  to  bring 
all  Angle-land  under  one  rule.  This  process,  which 
fills  the  confused  and  wearisome  annals  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  times,  was  retarded  by  strong  tribal  and  local 
feeling,  and  by  absence  of  any  national  sentiment, 
and  also  by  the  invasions  of  the  Danes.  Nevertheless, 
it  was  approaching  completion  when  William  the 


IRISH  CHRISTIANITY  29 

Conqueror  entered  the  island,  overthrew  the  native 
ruler,  and  himself  finished  that  unification  of  the 
country  which  the  natives  themselves  might  have 
worked  out  with  more  time.  Apparently  the  same 
process  was  going  on  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  cen- 
turies in  Ireland.  There  was  constant  tribal  warfare, 
in  which,  it  may  be,  as  many  Gaels  lost  their  lives  as 
fell  in  fighting  with  the  Danes.  But  some  consolida- 
tion appeared,  for  while  formerly  there  had  been  sev- 
eral kings  under  the  overlordship  of  a  higher  king, 
at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  there  were  two  king- 
doms, one  in  the  north  and  one  in  the  south,  and  the 
southern  king,  Brian  Boru,  presently  reduced  his  rival 
to  a  subordinate  position,  and  thus,  as  long  as  he 
could  maintain  his  power,  became  king  of  all  Ireland. 
He  had  attained,  it  may  be,  a  position  something  like 
that  which  Egbert  of  Wessex  had  once  held  in  Eng- 
land. Had  he  been  able  to  establish  his  dynasty  and 
consolidate  his  power,  perhaps  his  successors  could 
have  done  in  Erin  what  Alfred's  great  followers  did 
in  making  a  united  England.  This  was  not  to  be. 
After  several  years  of  rule,  which  in  later  times  seemed 
a  happy  and  prosperous  period,  the  Danes  of  Dublin 
with  the  men  of  Leinster,  assisted  by  other  Danes 
under  a  Viking  leader,  contested  his  power.  In  1014 
Brian  crushed  a  great  army  of  Danes  at  the  battle 
of  Clontarf,  fought  in  the  present  limits  of  Dublin 
city.  He  and  his  son  and  his  grandson  fell  on  the 
field,  but  Erin  was  saved  from  subjection  to  the 
heathen  Danes. 


30  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Nevertheless,  after  Clontarf  and  the  death  of  Brian 
Ireland  fell  back  into  a  worse  tribal  warfare  and  con- 
fusion than  before.  During  the  next  century  and  a 
half  there  was  no  longer  a  universally  acknowledged 
over-king.  Incessant  was  the  strife  and  bloodshed. 
Great  battles  were  fought  under  brave  leaders  and 
good  men  gave  up  their  lives.  In  the  midst  of  it 
all  came  further  invasions  of  the  Danes. 

It  is  true,  the  times  were  not  wholly  bad.  After 
their  victory  the  Irish  did  not  try  to  expel  the  Danes 
already  in  Erin.  Generally  these  settlers  remained 
in  the  coast  towns,  which  they  largely  controlled, 
carrying  on  a  great  part  of  the  island's  commerce,  on 
the  whole  conducting  themselves  well,  trading  with 
the  Gaelic  inhabitants,  intermarrying  with  them  after 
a  while,  and  giving  some  promise,  perhaps,  for  the  fu- 
ture of  being  absorbed  into  the  people  among  whom 
they  resided.  There  was  also  during  this  period  some 
continuation  of  the  material  and  intellectual  progress 
of  the  centuries  following  Christianity.  Missionaries 
continued  to  go  abroad,  and  monasteries  were  still 
founded  by  Irishmen  in  faraway  countries.  Some 
of  the  foundations  in  Erin  continued  to  be  centers 
of  intellectual  life,  and  skilled  workmen  there  con- 
tinued to  toil  at  their  handicrafts.  Much  exaggerated 
by  some  students,  this  period  has  been  described  as 
the  second  great  revival  of  the  Irish  people.  It  is 
difficult  to  interpret  an  obscure  past,  so  there  may  be 
much  truth  in  such  assertions,  but  detailed  accounts 
of  these  times  do  not  seem  to  warrant  them;  appar- 


IRISH  CHRISTIANITY  31 

ently  they  result  largely  from  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
Irish  revival  of  the  last  generation,  and  from  the  gen- 
erous emotion  characterizing  the  intellectual  aspects 
of  Sinn  Fein,  rather  than  proper  study  of  medieval 
Ireland.  Compared  with  the  glories  of  the  time  be- 
fore the  Dane,  the  period  seems  to  have  been  one  of 
decadence.  The  development  of  the  Irish  people 
from  tribal  organization  to  national  unity  had  not 
been  achieved,  and  progressing  slowly,  it  was  fatally 
retarded  by  the  disasters  of  the  time  of  the  North- 
men. Civilization,  character,  prosperity,  had  all  de- 
clined, as  they  did  in  England,  as  they  would  any- 
where. That  there  was  much  improvement  over  the 
worst  period-  of  the  Danish  wars  is  evident,  and  the 
revival,  such  as  it  was,  might  have  gone  forward  to 
far  greater  happiness  and  success,  had  the  Gaelic  peo- 
ple with  their  Danish  neighbors  remained  undisturbed 
now  and  been  left  to  the  bettering  influence  of  time. 
But  as  not  enough  time  was  given  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  in  England,  so  in  Ireland  it  was  much  more 
too  short.  In  1066  the  Normans  had  conquered  Eng- 
land; in  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century  they 
began  the  acquisition  of  Ireland.  In  a  certain  sense, 
indeed,  this  was  the  completion  of  the  Norman  Con- 
quest. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   ANGLO-NORMANS   IN    IRELAND 

From  the  seventeenth  yeare  of  King  Henry  the  Second, 
when  the  first  overture  was  made  for  the  Conquest  of  Ire- 
land .  .  .  untill  the  nine  and  thirtith  yeare  of  Queene  ELIZ- 
ABETH, when  that  Royal  army  was  sent  over  to  suppresse 
Tirones  Rebellion,  which  made  in  the  end  an  universall  and 
absolute  conquest  of  all  the  Irishrie :  it  is  most  certaine,  that 
the  English  forces  sent  hither,  or  raised  heere  from  time  to 
time,  were  ever  too  weake  to  subdue  and  master  so  many  war- 
like nations  (or  Septs)  of  the  Irish,  as  did  possesse  this  Is- 
land. 

The  first  attempt  to  conquer  this  Kingdome,  was  but  an 
adventure  of  a  few  private  Gentlemen. 

Sir  John  Davies,  A  Discoverie  of  the  State  of 
Ireland:  with  the  true  Causes  why  that  King- 
dom was  never  entirely  subdued,  etc.  (London, 
1613). 

THE  Angevin  Empire  in  England  and  France 
reached  its  height  under  Henry  II  (1154-1189) . 
By  marriage  and  inheritance  he  was  master  of  a  splen- 
did domain  stretching  from  the  border  of  Scotland 
down  beyond  the  Channel  to  southern  France.  The 
holding  together  of  these  far-stretched  dominions 
taxed  all  the  ability  of  Henry,  and  under  his  suc- 
cessors the  task  was  seen  to  be  impossible.  In  the 
midst  of  his  greater  work,  perhaps,  he  had  cherished 
plans  for  rounding  out  his  possessions  by  acquiring  the 

32 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      33 

great  island  which  lay  near  to  England,  which  com- 
manded much  of  the  traffic  from  his1  English  ports  to 
his  cities  in  France,  and  from  whose  harbors  went  that 
commerce  which  the  Danes  had  so  well  developed. 
The  story  has  often  been  told  that  he  resolved  to  at- 
tempt the  conquest  of  Ireland,  and  so  sent  an  emis- 
sary, John  of  Salisbury,  to  Pope  Adrian  IV,  English 
by  birth,  to  say  that  conditions  in  the  island  were 
grievous  and  crying  for  remedy,  and  desire  permis- 
sion to  take  possession  of  the  country  so  as  to  bring 
back  the  people  to  good  order  and  religion.  There 
is  some  doubt  as  to  this.  No  reliable  evidence  exists 
that  Henry  ever  sought  a  license  from  the  Pope;  but 
it  seems  clear  that  John  of  Salisbury  did  obtain  for 
the  king  a  concession  of  Ireland.  It  has  been  con- 
jectured that  all  of  this  was  a  part  of  the  world  poli- 
tics of  the  time  played  by  popes  against  emperors. 
It  was  the  ambition  of  a  great  line  of  pontiffs  in  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  to  render  the  papacy 
supreme  in  temporal  matters,  making  themselves  in 
the  affairs  of  this  world  the  head  of  a  feudal  hierarchy, 
in  which  princes  and  kings  would  hold  their  dominions 
as  feudal  dependencies  of  the  Pope.  William  of  Nor- 
mandy had  received  from  Alexander  II  a  ring  and  a 
banner  on  setting  out  for  the  conquest  of  England. 
Robert  Guiscard  had  appeared  before  Nicholas  II  to 
hold  his  conquests  in  southern  Italy  as  a  fief  of  the 
Holy  See.  Later  on,  as  is  well  known,  John  of  Eng- 
land surrendered  his  kingdom  to  Innocent  III  and 
had  it  confirmed  to  him  as  a  papal  fief.  In  1219  the 


34  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

king  of  the  Isle  of  Man  surrendered  his  kingdom  to 
the  Pope,  and  was  reinvested  with  it  as  a  fief,  the  in- 
vestiture being  made  with  a  ring  sent  for  that  pur- 
pose. It  is  thought  that  Adrian  was  now  strengthen- 
ing himself  by  conciliating  the  English  king  with  a 
grant  of  Ireland.  John  of  Salisbury  says  that  the 
Pope  granted  Hibernia  to  Henry  II  to  hold  by  hered- 
itary right,  the  Pope's  power  to  do  this  being  founded 
upon  the  Donation  of  Constantine,  by  which  all  is- 
lands pertain  to  the  Roman  Church;  and  that  he  sent 
the  king  an  emerald  ring  for  investiture.  Henry  was 
not  at  first  able  to  undertake  an  invasion  of  Ireland, 
but  after  a  while  events  took  place  which  caused  a 
beginning. 

There  was  a  king  of  Leinster,  Dermot  or  Diarmaid, 
represented  as  a  man  of  violence,  guilty  of  many  sins, 
but  much  like  his  fellows  then.  In  1166  he  was  over- 
come by  his  enemies  and  fled  from  Ireland  under 
sentence  of  banishment.  He  went  to  Henry,  and 
praying  for  help,  offered  to  hold  Leinster  of  Henry 
as  lord.  It  may  be  that  this  roused  again  the  inter- 
est of  the  king.  He  now  got  from  Alexander  III  a 
confirmation  of  Pope  Adrian'-s  donation,  .and  a  docu- 
ment explaining  how  the  island  had  been  granted  to 
him,  this  document  being  the  so-called  Bull  Laudabili- 
ter,  about  which  controversy  often  has  raged.  It 
should  be  noticed  that  it  was  upon  these  papal  grants 
that  the  claim  of  England  was  technically  based.  Ed- 
mund Burke  once  asserted  that  down  to  the  Reforma- 
tion Englishmen  founded  their  title  upon  Adrian's 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      35 

grant.  An  English  statute  of  1467  declared  that  "our 
Holy  Father  Adrian,  Pope  of  Rome,  was  possessed 
of  all  the  sovereignty  of  Ireland  in  his  demesne  as  of 
fee,  in  right  of  his  Church  of  Rome,"  that  in  order 
that  vice  might  be  subdued,  he  had  alienated  it  to  the 
king  of  England  for  a  certain  rent,  by  which  grant 
the  subjects  of  Ireland  owed  allegiance  to  the  king 
of  England  as  their  sovereign  lord.1  At  the  time  of 
the  Reformation,  it  was  asserted  in  Ireland  that  the 
Donation  of  Adrian  was  forfeited  by  Henry  VIII 
and  Edward  VI  when  they  renounced  the  Pope's  spir- 
itual and  temporal  authority.  But  in  1555,  on  the 
supplication  of  Philip  and  Mary,  Paul  IV  conferred 
upon  English  sovereigns  the  title  of  King  of  Ireland, 
without  prejudice  to  the  overlordship  of  the  Pope. 
Somewhat  later,  when  the  Irish  were  about  to  offer 
the  kingship  to  Philip  of  Spain,  the  Pope  declared 
that  he  was  astonished  at  this,  "since  it  was  easy  to 
remember  that  the  kingdom  of  Ireland  belonged  to 
the  dominion  of  the  Church,  was  held  as  a  fief  under 
it,  and  could  not,  therefore,  unless  by  the  Pope,  be 
subjected  to  any  new  ruler."  2 

In  the  play  of  world  politics  at  this  time,  Rome  con- 
ferred Ireland  upon  Henry  II  as  a  feudal  depend- 
ency. It  may  well  be  believed  that  misinformed  as 
to  religious  conditions  in  the  island,  the  popes  desired 
to  bring  about  the  spiritual  betterment  of  the  people 

1  Clerigh,  p.  410. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  410,  411.     I  am  much  indebted  to  this  author  for  the  light 
which  his  researches  afford  in  many  dark  places. 


36  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

by  doing  this.  Actually,  however,  "the  Gael,  who  de- 
served a  better  fate,  were  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
ruthless  and  rapacious  adventurers."  3  And  so  they 
were.  Ireland  had  not  even  the  fortune  to  be  con- 
quered by  a  great  and  strong  ruler  and  made  a  part 
of  well-governed  dominions,  but  was  left  to  be  de- 
spoiled by  soldiers  of  fortune  who  strove  to  carve  out 
estates  for  themselves  at  whatever  violation  of  the 
rights  of  the  natives  and  whatever  cost  in  suffering 
and  despair.  Henry  gave  to  Diarmaid  letters  patent 
authorizing  his  subjects  to  assist  in  restoring  the 
chieftain.  Then  Diarmaid  proceeded  to  England  and 
Wales  and  enlisted  in  his  cause  certain  adventurers, 
chief  among  them  Strongbow,  a  ruined  baron,  to 
whom  he  promised  his  daughter  and  succession  to 
Leinster.  Preceded  by  other  adventurers,  Strong- 
bow  invaded  Ireland  in  1170  with  a  force  of  3,000  men 
and  easily  overcame  all  resistance.  Diarmaid  soon 
had  Leinster  again,  and  would  have  been  glad,  per- 
haps, to  be  rid  of  his  dangerous  helpers ;  but  actually 
they  were  using  him  for  their  own  purposes,  arid  after 
his  death,  which  soon  occurred,  they  proceeded  to  win 
for  themselves  by  the  sword  all  they  could  take. 
These  Welsh-Norman  adventurers  were,  with  their 
thorough  efficiency  and  calculated  terrorism,  much 
like  the  Germans  who  entered  Belgium  and  Poland 
five  years  ago.  When  they  had  taken  certain  cap- 
tives, one  of  their  leaders  declared:  "We  must  either 
resolutely  accomplish  what  we  have  undertaken,  and 

BClerigh,  p.  412, 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      37 

stifling  all  emotions  of  pity  utterly  subjugate  this  re- 
bellious nation,  by  the  strong  hand,  or  indulging  in 
deeds  of  mercy,  as  Raymond  proposes,  sail  home- 
ward." And  when  he  had  spoken  thus,  says  the 
chronicler,  the  limbs  of  the  captives  were  broken,  and 
they  were  cast  headlong  into  the  sea.4 

So  great  was  the  invaders'  progress  that  the  jeal- 
ousy of  Henry  was  aroused,  for  it  seemed  that  a 
strong  jurisdiction  was  about  to  be  founded  near  his 
own.  Therefore,  setting  sail  from  England  with  a 
small  but  powerful  army,  he  landed  in  Ireland  in 
1171,  and  received  the  submission  of  all  the  contest- 
ants, no  one  daring  to  resist  him.  He  remained  in 
Ireland  for  six  months,  spending  Christmas  in  Dub- 
lin, whither  the  Irish  princes  were  invited  to  come. 
They  were  much  pleased  at  the  attention  shown  them, 
and  throughout  his  stay  Henry  treated  them  so  that 
they  believed  he  would  regard  their  rights  and  pro- 
tect them  from  the  greed  of  his  barons.  He  caused 
a  synod  for  church  discipline  to  be  held  at  Cashel. 
Most  important  of  all,  he  made  arrangements  for  the 
government  of  the  country,  in  accordance  with  the 
feudal  model  which  he  knew  so  well  in  England.  The 
land  which  the  Irish  people,  following  their  tribal 
custom,  considered  to  belong  to  themselves,  he  re- 
garded as  his  own,  and  divided  it  among  his  barons, 
always  supposing  that  they  would  be  able  to  con- 
quer it  from  the  natives  and  hold  it  in  possession.  "It 
may  be  said  that  he  gave  the  whole  of  Ireland  to  ten 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  403,  404. 


38  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  his  nobles."  5  From  among  his  followers  he  ap- 
pointed governors  of  the  principal  towns  which  had 
submitted  to  him,  commanding  them  to  build  castles 
to  overawe  the  inhabitants  of  town  and  country 
around.  Then  he  departed.  During  his  stay  all  had 
gone  well.  He  had  done  much  to  overthrow  the  old 
system,  but  it  was  being  destroyed  before  he  came. 
If  only  he  could  have  remained  to  keep  order  and 
maintain  some  rude  justice,  with  his  admirable  talent 
for  organization  and  administration  of  government, 
it  might  have  been  well  for  the  mass  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple; but  this  could  not  be.  Greater  tasks  called  him 
in  England  and  in  his  French  lands.  Since  he  left 
no  strong  force  to  represent  his  authority,  the  barons 
and  soldiers  of  fortune  now  did  as  they  pleased. 
Those  to  whom  broad  lands  had  been  granted  so  easily 
strove  to  possess  them.  The  natives  resisted.  Soon 
there  was  turmoil  and  bloodshed,  plunder,  and  strife 
never-ending,  with  merciless  treatment  of  the  natives. 
When  the  Normans  had  conquered  England  they 
came  in  strong  force  under  a  great  general  who  was 
able  and  stern  in  discipline  and  rule.  England  was 
soon  subdued,  and  though  during  a  great  while  there 
was  misery  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  people,  the  worst 
that  befell  them  was  that  while  a  new  system  was  being 
established,  they  long  remained  the  lowest  class  in  the 
land  of  their  fathers.  During  all  those  years  of  de- 
pression they  lived  under  the  best  administered  gov- 
ernment in  western  Europe,  and  in  the  end  the  bene- 

e  Joyce,  p.  263. 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      39 

fits  were  thoroughly  shared  by  them.  But  such  for- 
tune was  not  mingled  with  the  bad  fate  of  Ireland. 
Normans  were  conquering  Ireland  also;  but  they 
never  came  in  a  large  body  standing  together  under 
some  great  leader  to  do  their  work  swiftly  and  well. 
Henry  came  as  a  visitor.  What  he  might  have  done 
greatly  was  left  to  scattered  bands  of  freebooters  and 
seekers  of  fortune,  under  petty  leaders,  greedy  and 
cruel,  but  rarely  winning  distinction  for  military  or 
executive  greatness.  Nor  were  there  enough  of  them 
to  do  their  work  quickly,  and  set  up  their  system,  such 
as  it  was.  They  were  only  able  to  distract  the  island 
for  a  long  while,  harry  the  people,  destroy  the  good- 
ness of  Celtic  character  and  civilization,  and  make 
bloodshed,  misery,  and  confusion. 

In  equipment,  in  military  science,  in  guile,  the  Nor- 
man invaders  were  so  far  superior  to  the  natives  that 
usually  a  small  body  could  slaughter  many  of  the  ill- 
armed  and  lightly  protected  Celts.  As  a  rule  also 
the  great  Norman  fortresses  could  not  be  captured 
by  Irish  siege  or  assault.  Moreover,  the  tribal  sys- 
tem, which  produced  constant  local  dissension,  used  up 
strength  which  might  have  opposed  the  stranger,  and 
rendered  united  action  or  common  defence  well-nigh 
impossible.  Therefore,  while  the  Normans  were 
sometimes  defeated,  and  sometimes  reduced  to  de- 
spair, they  could  never  *be  overwhelmed  or  altogether 
expelled.  On  the  other  hand,  because  here  was  the 
feudal  system  at  its  worst,  lacking  strong  control  from 
good  central  government  such  as  existed  in  England, 


40  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  Norman  barons  and  leaders  seldom  acted  in  union. 
Poor  communications  through  the  country  and  the 
many  wild  and  scantly  peopled  places  hindered  the 
invaders  and  were  of  much  assistance  to  the  rapid 
moving  Irish  in  their  wars  of  defence.  Finally,  the 
mere  number  of  the  invaders  was  not  sufficient  to  ac- 
complish the  task  which  they  had  set  out  to  do.  So, 
at  last  was  what  might  have  been  foreseen  in  the  be- 
ginning: like  the  Danes,  the  Normans  had  entered 
and  could  not  be  driven  out,  but  like  the  Danes  before 
them  they  were  not  able  to  subdue  the  island;  and  so 
there  was  again  the  endless  bitterness  and  strife,  the 
furious  fighting,  harrying  and  plundering,  the  wild 
life  and  misery  and  hardship,  that  lasted  so  long  in 
the  border  country  between  England  and  Scotland. 
A  new  element  had  come  into  the  land;  but  civiliza- 
tion and  prosperity  had  been  put  far  back.  Irishmen 
think  it  a  misfortune  that  their  country  was  conquered 
by  England.  But  it  was  a  far  greater  misfortune 
that  the  conquest  once  undertaken  was  not  during 
such  a  long  time  made  complete.  Nothing  worse 
could  have  happened  than  that  the  kings  of  England 
took  so  little  interest  or  could  interfere  so  little,  that 
Ireland  was  largely  left  to  the  pleasure  of  rapacious 
lords  who  sought  not  to  subdue  it  to  good  government 
but  to  win  great  fortunes  for  themselves. 

After  Henry's  departure  various  governors  ad- 
ministered in  his  place;  but  confusion  and  disorder 
increased  in  the  absence  of  the  one  person  strong 
enough  for  the  difficulties  of  the  situation.  Raids  by 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      41 

the  colonists  were  answered  with  reprisals  by  the  Irish. 
There  were  constant  quarrels  and  destructive  tur- 
moil. Prince  John,  youngest  son  of  the  king,  some 
time  before  made  ruler  of  Ireland,  was  sent  by  his 
father.  But  the  prince  was  inexperienced  and  capri- 
cious. He  lost  the  regard  of  the  colonists  at  once,  and 
his  foolish  and  insolent  followers  alienated  the  Irish 
chiefs  by  plucking  their  beards  and  mocking  their 
manners  and  dress.  Suddenly  the  Irish  rose,  slaying 
many,  and  capturing  numerous  strongholds,  so  that 
John's  power  was  ruined,  as  his  influence  was  already 
gone.  The  country  settled  back  into  misery  and  de- 
pression :  the  Irish  chiefs  in  constant  tribal  dissension ; 
the  English  nobles  ever  quarrelling ;  English  and  Irish 
always  attacking  each  other.  In  1210,  John,  now  king 
of  England,  landed  with  a  powerful  army  and  over- 
awed all  resistance.  Something  was  done  for  the  bet- 
ter governing  of  the  country.  Those  parts  of  Ire- 
land under  English  control  were  divided  into  twelve 
shires,  after  the  arrangement  in  England,  and  as  the 
English  afterward  did  in  Scotland  and  Wales  when 
they  began  to  conquer  those  countries.  In  the  Irish 
counties  English  law  was  to  be  administered  in  courts 
of  justice  erected  for  that  purpose,  and  sheriffs  and 
other  local  officers  were  appointed  on  the  English 
model.  It  is  important  to  notice  here  and  in  later 
times  that  this  English  law  and  administrative  ma- 
chinery were  for  the  Anglo-Norman  settlers  alone, 
the  natives  remaining  outside  it. 

Then  followed  the  long  reign  of  Henry  III,  at  first 


42  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

a  minor,  and  always  a  weakling,  during  which  time 
there  was  distress  and  confusion  in  England,  as  al- 
ways when  the  central  government  was  not  in  capable 
hands,  while  in  Ireland,  where  as  yet  strong  central 
government  had  not  been  erected,  more  than  ever 
there  was  strife,  anarchy,  bloodshed,  and  woe.  The 
Irish  fought  among  themselves  without  ceasing.  The 
English  abetted  now  one  party,  now  another,  and 
again  fell  upon  them  all,  as  it  served  their  interests. 
The  Irish  sometimes  ceased  their  tribal  disputes  and 
turned  upon  the  English,  burning  and  spoiling  their 
settlements.  With  such  conditions  often  it  was  easy 
for  the  foreign  adventurers  to  take  more  and  more 
of  the  land  of  the  Irish  chieftains  and  people.  So 
it  continued  all  through  the  thirteenth  century.  Ed- 
ward I,  so  renowned  for  reforms  in  England,  could 
give  little  attention  to  Ireland.  England  now  was 
attempting  the  conquest  of  Scotland.  The  Irish  in 
the  north  of  their  island  saw  with  much  interest  the 
resistance  of  their  kinsmen  against  Edward  I  and  the 
victory  of  Bannockburn  in  the  reign  of  his  son.  Al- 
ready they  had  appealed  to  the  Pope  against  the  Eng- 
lish. Now,  they  asked  Robert  Bruce,  king  of  Scot- 
land, to  send  Edward,  his  brother,  for  their  king. 
Edward  Bruce  came  with  an  excellent  army.  He 
was  joined  by  great  numbers  of  the  Irish,  overran  a 
large  part  of  the  north  country,  and  defeated  the 
English  in  numerous  battles.  For  three  years  the 
hapless  country  was  the  scene  of  furious  combats 
and  was  wasted  and  ruined  by  the  contestants.  There 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      43 

was  immense  destruction  of  property  and  enormous 
suffering  by  the  people.  Finally  Bruce  was  defeated 
and  slain  by  the  English  colonists,  whom  he  had  al- 
most driven  to  despair.  But  the  unhappy  country 
sank  still  lower  into  depression.  In  Ulster  and  in 
other  places  the  colonists  had  almost  entirely  disap- 
peared, and  Irish  clans  and  their  chiefs  .resumed 
possession.  In  Dublin  the  central  government  had 
been  shaken  to  its  base,  and  remained  pitifully  weak 
for  many  a  year  to  come.  Accordingly,  Irish  chiefs 
and  English  lords  were  more  independent  and  tyran- 
nical than  ever.  There  was  incessant  local  and  pri- 
vate war.  Law  was  almost  in  abeyance.  The 
wretched  inhabitants  were  robbed  and  oppressed. 
There  were  the  conditions  which  had  existed  in  the 
England  of  the  "Heptarchy,"  and  in  German  coun- 
tries when  robbers  ruled  by  the  Rhine. 

The  representative  of  the  king,  the  viceroy,  was 
not  often  able  to  maintain  his  authority  or  keep  order 
in  the  land  committed  to  his  charge,  neither  with  re- 
spect to  the  natives  unsubdued,  nor  with  respect  to 
the  Norman  nobles.  Constantly  they  fought  against 
the  Irish ;  as  often  they  carried  on  strife  among  them- 
selves. The  power  of  the  viceroy  declined,  and  pres- 
ently the  strength  of  the  invaders.  Often  the  most 
powerful  jurisdictions  of  the  Anglo-Normans  were 
the  palatine  counties,  erected  in  Ireland,  as  they  had 
been  in  England  and  elsewhere,  on  the  frontier,  for 
defense  against  the  natives,  and  with  the  purpose  of 
extending  the  conquest.  In  course  of  time,  as  the 


44  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

English  kings  neglected  Ireland,  palatine  jurisdic- 
tions made  up  more  than  half  of  the  territory  held. 
Within  these  territories  the  rulers  had  power  wellnigh 
independent,  and  usually  heeded  royal  authority  as 
much  or  as  little  as  they  pleased.  In  the  course  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  as  the  Celtic  inhabitants  began  to 
regain  their  power,  the  country  of  the  Anglo-Nor- 
mans was  restricted  to  various  possessions  of  warriors 
who  had  come  and  conquered  estates  for  themselves 
and  their  houses,  and  particularly  to  the  district 
around  Dublin  known  as  the  English  Pale. 

During  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  also 
the  hold  of  England  relaxed,  little  interest  was  taken 
in  Ireland,  and  little  attention  bestowed.  The  cen- 
tral government  of  Ireland,  representing  in  some 
measure  the  authority  of  England,  weaker  and 
weaker  as  time  went  on,  was  engaged  in  defense 
rather  than  extension  of  conquest.  The  native  Irish, 
taking  advantage  of  the  weakness  of  the  English  and 
their  dissensions,  recovered  some  of  their  lands.  But 
far  more  important  than  this  was  the  gradual  inter- 
mingling and  fusion  of  the  races,  which  in  the  course  of 
this  period  became  almost  complete.  "Henry  II  in 
1171  had  led  an  army  for  'the  conquest'  of  Ireland. 
Three  hundred  years  later,  when  Henry  VII  in  1487 
turned  his  thoughts  to  Ireland  he  found  no  conquered 
land."  Outside  the  Pale  "was  a  country  of  Irish 
language,  dress,  and  customs.  .  .  .  Norman  lords  had 
married  daughters  of  Irish  chiefs  all  over  the  country, 
and  made  combinations  and  treaties  with  every  prov- 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      45 

ince.  Their  children  went  to  be  fostered  in  kindly 
houses  of  the  Irish.  .  .  .  Many  settlers  changed 
their  names  to  an  Irish  form,  and  taking  up  the  clan 
system  melted  into  the  Irish  population.  Irish 
speech  was  so  universal  that  a  proclamation  of  Henry 
VIII  in  a  Dublin  parliament  had  to  be  translated 
into  Irish  by  the  Earl  of  Ormond."  G 

There  were  many  natural  causes  of  this,  the  chief 
one  being  that  the  English  settlers  were  always  a 
minority  living  in  the  midst  of  a  far  greater  number 
of  Celtic  inhabitants,  who  absorbed  them  in  time, 
much  as  the  Norman-French  conquerors  of  England 
were  absorbed  by  the  Anglo-Saxons.  There  was  also 
the  reason  that  usually  the  older  generations  of 
English  settlers  were  not  favored  by  the  English  gov- 
ernment, and  saw  themselves  passed  by  in  favor  of 
newer  arrivals  to  whom  was  committed  all  honor  and 
trust,  and  who  treated  them  with  contempt;  the  con- 
sequence being  that  the  older  families  tended  to  iden- 
tify themselves  with  the  Celts  among  whom  they  were 
living,  rather  than  the  governing  class  which  repre- 
sented English  authority.  Hence  the  older  settlers, 
once  invaders  and  hated  by  the  natives,  became  more 
Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves,  regarding  the  authori- 
ties and  the  English  of  the  Pale  with  aversion,  and 
detested  by  them  as  "degenerate  English"  and  dis- 
loyal. Norman  shrines  were  erected  to  Irish  saints. 
Anglo-Irish  noblemen  led  the  Celts  in  rebellion 
against  English  authority,  and  in  course  of  time,  some 

e  Mrs.  Green,  pp.  Ill,  112. 


46  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  them,  like  the  Geraldines,  were  more  trusted  by  the 
natives  than  most  of  the  Irish  chieftains.  Irish  poets 
carried  their  Celtic  poems  and  traditions  among  the 
settlers.  Anglo-Irishmen  and  Celts  shared  together 
in  such  revival  of  feeling  and  culture  as  the  unhappy 
times  allowed  to  develop. 

In  the  midst  of  the  welter  of  anarchy  and  tribal 
dissension  there  were  Irishmen  who  were  renowned 
as  astronomers  and  physicians.  There  were  still  as- 
semblies of  learned  men;  there  was  still  much  copy- 
ing and  recording  by  scribes.  "It  was  no  wonder," 
says  a  writer  of  this  present  generation,  whose  en- 
thusiasm beholds  very  vividly  the  goodness  of  times 
departed,  "that  in  this  high  fervour  of  the  country 
the  Anglo-Normans,  like  the  Danes  and  the  North- 
umbrians before  them,  were  won  to  a  civilization  so 
vital  and  impassioned,  so  human  and  gay."  7 

In  the  fourteenth  century  the  English  government 
became  alarmed  at  the  weakness  of  its  authority  in 
Ireland  and  the  independence  of  the  palatine  lords, 
and  attempted  to  strengthen  the  one  and  subdue  the 
other.  The  Pale  was  steadily  dwindling.  Edward 
III  sent  over  his  son,  afterwards  Duke  of  Clarence, 
as  lord  lieutenant.  The  young  prince  went  forth  to 
save,  if  possible,  the  English  colony,  now  reduced  to 
desperate  straits.  He  hated  the  Irish  natives,  and 
also  the  older  settlers  from  England.  His  efforts 
had  little  success.  Three  times  he  came  to  Ireland. 

TMrs.  Green,  pp.  116,  117. 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      47 

At  last  in  1367,  believing  it  impossible  to  conquer 
the  island,  he  caused  to  be  passed,  in  an  Irish  parlia- 
ment held  at  Kilkenny,  with  the  purpose  of  saving  the 
English  settlement  in  the  country,  the  celebrated 
Statute  of  Kilkenny,  which  aimed,  in  general,  to  pre- 
vent the  further  fusion  of  the  races.  The  preamble 
of  this  law  and  other  laws  passed  then  expound  a 
policy  which  may  have  seemed  necessary  to  the  unen- 
lightened statesmen  of  that  time,  but  which,  happily, 
English-speaking  peoples  have  long  since  abandoned, 
and  which  contemporary  students  have  been  more 
accustomed  to  find  in  the  doings  of  Teutonic  peoples. 
The  English  settlers  were  becoming  mere  Irish  in  their 
speech  and  manner  of  living,  had  rejected  the  Eng- 
lish law,  and  submitted  themselves  to  the  Irish,  and 
had  so  married  and  allied  themselves  with  the  natives 
that  the  English  power  in  the  island  seemed  threat- 
ened. So  now  the  Statute  of  Kilkenny  forbade, 
under  pain  of  death,  intermarriage,  fosterage,  and  in- 
timate relations  of  any  kind  with  the  Irish.  The 
English  settlers  were  forbidden  to  use  Irish  names, 
language,  customs,  or  dress,  under  penalty  of  for- 
feiture of  property;  and  the  Irish  living  among  the 
English  were  forbidden  to  use  the  Irish  language  or 
submit  to  the  Brehon  Law.  This  statute  carried 
further  the  fatal  policy,  which  had  been  adopted  by 
the  English  government  from  the  beginning,  of  en- 
tirely separating  the  two  races,  or  making  unavoid- 
able intercourse  between  them  painful  and  unfriendly. 


48  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Its  benefits  were  intended  largely  for  the  English. 
In  so  far  as  it  succeeded,  its  evil  heritage  has  lasted 
to  the  present. 

It  is  manifest,  that  such  as  had  the  Government  of  Ireland 
under  the  Crowne  of  England,  did  intend  to  make  a  per- 
petuall  separation  and  enmity  betweene  the  English  and  the 
Irish;  pretending  (no  doubt)  that  the  English  should  in  the 
end  roote  out  the  Irish :  which  the  English  not  being  able  to 
do,  did  cause  a  perpetuall  Warre  betweene  the  nations : 
which  continued  foure  hundered  and  odde  yeares,  and  would 
have  lasted  to  the  Worlds  end ;  if  in  the  end  of  Queene  Eliza- 
beths raigne,  the  Irishy  had  not  beene  broken  and  conquered 
by  the  Sword.8 

The  Statute  of  Kilkenny  was  passed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  stopping  all  fusion  of  the  races,  and  keeping 
intact  a  strong  English  element  in  Ireland  upon  which 
the  power  of  England  might  be  based  in  holding  the 
island.  Its  failure  was  complete.  It  was  not  strictly 
enforced,  and  probably  could  not  be.  English  and 
Irish  had  been  mingling  more  and  more  for  some 
generations,  trading,  intermarrying,  fostering.  The 
English  settlers  themselves  frequently  petitioned  that 
the  law  be  not  enforced;  their  petitions  seem  often 
to  have  been  granted;  and  the  law  became  a  dead 
letter.  But  because  this  policy,  pernicious  as  now  we 
see  it,  was  successful  in  its  immediate  purpose  when- 
even  it  could  be  enforced,  it  remained,  and  attempts 
were  made  to  support  it  in  later  legislation.  By 
divers  penal  laws  the  English  were  forbidden  to  marry 

s  Sir  John  Davies,  A  Discoverie  of  the  State  of  Ireland,  etc.,  in  Col- 
lection of  Tracts  and  Treatises,  i.  643. 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      49 

or  trade  with  the  Irish,  especially  in  the  time  of  Henry 
VI  and  of  Henry  VIII.  Nevertheless,  there  was  a 
constant  tendency  for  the  English  settlers  to  drift 
toward  fusion  with  the  natives.  On  one  occasion 
King  Richard  II  of  England  described  the  inhabi- 
tants as  of  three  classes:  the  "Irish  enemies,"  by  whom 
he  meant  the  natives  outside  the  pale  of  the  English 
law,  the  Irish  rebels,  or  English  settlers  and  natives 
who  had  once  obeyed  the  authority  of  England,  and 
the  English  subjects. 

The  long  reign  of  Edward  III  passed  with  wars 
abroad  in  France  and  then  trouble  and  corruption  at 
home.  For  England  the  splendid  and  specious  vic- 
tories on  the  fields  of  France  were  dearly  purchased 
in  weakening  hold  upon  Ireland.  Richard,  the  next 
sovereign,  came  over  with  the  greatest  army  which 
had  ever  been  brought  there,  and  for  a  while  submis- 
sion was  enforced  and  order  was  restored.  But  im- 
mediately upon  his  departure  the  evils  reappeared, 
and  Richard's  expedition  in  the  last  year  of  his  reign 
to  restore  what  was  falling,  ended  in  disaster,  a  mis- 
fortune in  no  small  degree  responsible  for  the  loss  of 
his  life  and  his  crown.  Under  the  Lancastrian  kings 
of  the  dynasty  which  followed,  1399-1461,  English 
power  diminished  and  decayed.  The  Lancastrian 
kings  had  not  the  best  title  to  the  throne,  and  both 
Henry  IV  and  Henry  VI  had  many  difficulties  at 
home.  Henry  V  undertook  a  great  enterprise  of 
conquest  abroad,  but  again  it  was  in  richer  and  more 
promising  fields,  and  the  victories  which  were  gained 


50  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

brought  glory  in  France,  but  no  substantial  power, 
and  nothing  at  all  in  Ireland.  So,  during  the 
fifteenth  century  as  in  the  fourteenth,  English  mili- 
tary power  was  wasted  where  it  could  bring  no  per- 
manent gain,  when  a  part  of  it  wisely  employed  might 
have  conquered  Ireland  completely,  and  established 
settled  government  and  order  for  the  lasting  benefit 
of  both  English  and  Irish.  Once,  in  1449,  Richard, 
Duke  of  York,  came  from  England  and  ruled  with 
firm  and  capable  hand.  He  was  appointed  lord  lieu- 
tenant for  ten  years  with  extraordinary  powers.  He 
had  hopes  of  becoming  king  of  England  later  on, 
and  like  others  in  the  future,  attempted  to  base  his 
power  to  some  extent  upon  Irish  support.  He  be- 
came very  popular,  but  after  a  short  stay  returned  to 
England,  where  he  lost  his  life  in  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses. 

So,  the  conquest  of  Ireland  by  England,  under- 
taken, like  the  conquest  of  England,  by  Norman 
adventurers,  but  carried  out  on  a  less  grand  scale, 
usually  with  scattered  forces  and  dissipated  strength, 
and  seldom  under  the  guidance  of  an  able  ruler,  had 
in  the  course  of  the  two  centuries  elapsed  since  the 
days  of  Strongbow  and  Henry  II  failed  almost  en- 
tirely except  in  one  thing.  Ireland  had  not  been 
subdued  and  rendered  truly  dependent  upon  England 
or  in  any  real  sense  made  part  of  a  greater  empire. 
Nor  had  any  Anglo-Norman  regime  of  conquerors 
been  set  up  in  Ireland,  developing  well-ordered  power 
independent  of  England.  What  had  been  done  in 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      51 

the  beginning  had  continued  with  diminishing 
strength:  English  settlers  had  established  themselves 
about  Dublin,  in  Leinster,  and  along  the  east  coast; 
Norman  barons  and  soldiers  of  fortune  had  built  up 
for  themselves  petty  jurisdictions  in  which  they  ruled 
often  with  palatine  powers.  Neither  the  settlers 
under  the  king's  viceroy  at  Dublin,  nor  the  great 
lords  who  went  their  own  way  had  been  strong  enough 
to  complete  the  conquest.  From  time  to  time  great 
sovereigns  came  from  England  with  strong  forces, 
received  submission  and  obedience,  then  departed,  and 
their  authority  vanished  largely  when  they  had  gone. 
And  the  most  wretched  thing  about  it  all  was  that  the 
Irish  natives,  who  might  have  been  best  off  if  left  to 
work  out  their  own  civilization  which  they  had  begun 
to  develop,  but  who,  lacking  that  good  fortune,  would 
have  been  happiest  in  the  end  if  they  had  been  quickly 
subdued,  governed  strongly  and  well,  and  given 
security  and  order,  and  chance  to  take  part  in  the 
rising  culture  and  prosperity  of  western  Europe,  that 
these  natives  were  by  the  circumstances  of  the  Eng- 
lish conquest  on  the  one  hand  debarred  from  living 
in  peace  under  their  own  Gaelic  customs  and  on  the 
other  hand  were  not  given  and  not  allowed  for  the 
most  part  to  receive  such  benefits  as  the  Anglo-Nor- 
man intruders  could  offer.  The  stranger  could  not 
subdue  the  native,  the  native  could  not  drive  the  in- 
vader out.  One  might  have  predicted  that  however 
great  would  be  the  suffering  resulting  from  this  for 
the  time  being-  in  the  end  the  two  peoples  would 


52  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

settle  down  together,  and  mingling  and  learning  to 
respect  each  other  would  have  mutual  benefit  at  last. 
That  result  did  indeed  come  to  a  considerable  extent, 
and  there  was  in  the  midst  of  all  the  confusion  and 
misery  of  the  times  some  revival  of  prosperity  and 
much  promise  for  the  future.  But  the  English  gov- 
ernment at  Dublin  strove  so  far  as  it  could  to  pre- 
vent this  very  thing.  It  was  not  strong  enough  to 
prevent  much  fusion  of  the  races;  it  was  too  weak  to 
establish  good  order  and  good  government  on  any 
model  in  the  island;  yet  such  legislation  as  it  could 
enforce  was  intended  to  keep  English  and  Irish  apart, 
and  make  of  the  natives  inferiors  and  outcasts.  This, 
as  we  see  it  now,  is  the  tragedy  of  medieval  Ireland, 
and  the  most  grievous  error,  perhaps,  of  English  ad- 
ministration. In  the  course  of  time,  many  of  the 
Irish,  hopeless,  it  may  be,  of  salvation  in  any  other 
way,  themselves  desired  to  have  English  adminis- 
tration and  law  extended  to  them.  "I  note  as  a  great 
defect  in  the  Civill  policy  of  this  kingdom,"  says  Sir 
John  Davies,  attorney-general  in  Ireland  in  the  time 
of  James  I,  "that  for  the  space  of  350  yeares  at  least 
after  the  Conquest  first  attempted,  the  English  lawes 
were  not  communicated  to  the  Irish,  nor  the  benefit 
and  protection  therof  allowed  unto  them,  though  they 
earnestly  desired  and  sought  the  same."  And  he 
says: 

Perhaps   the  Irishy   in   former  times   did   wilfully   refuse 
to  be  subject  to  the  Lawes  of  England,  and  would  not  be 
»  Collection  of  Tracts  and  Treatises,  i.  645. 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      53 

partakers  of  the  benefit  thereof,  though  the  Crowne  of  Eng- 
land did  desire  it;  and  therefore,  they  were  reputed  Aliens, 
Outlawes,  and  enemies.  Assuredly,  the  contrarie  doth  ap- 
peare,  aswell  by  the  Charters  of  Denization  purchased  by 
the  Irish  in  all  ages,  as  by  a  petition  preferred  by  them  to 
the  King,  Anno  %  Edward  Third:  desiring  that  an  act 
might  passe  in  Ireland,  whereby  all  the  Irishrie  might  be 
inabled  to  use  and  in  joy  the  Lawes  of  England.  ...  I  am 
well  assured,  that  the  Irishry  did  desire  to  be  admitted  to 
the  benefit  of  the  Law  not  onely  in  this  petition  .  .  .  but 
by  all  their  submissions  made  to  King  Richard  the  Second, 
and  to  the  Lord  Thomas  of  Lancaster  before  the  warres 
of  the  two  Houses ;  and  afterwards  .  .  .  when  King  Henry 
the  Eight  began  to  reforme  this  kingdome.10 

By  no  means  did  the  Irish  generally  desire  to  give 
up  their  own  and  submit  to  the  alien  English  law. 
During  the  fifteenth  century  their  power  seemed  to 
increase  and  that  of  the  English  to  wane.  In  spite 
of  all  obstacles  they  were  absorbing  the  English  out- 
side the  Pale  and  even  within  it.  But  their  own 
progress  had  received  a  fatal  setback.  Left  to  them- 
selves it  may  be  that  they  would,  like  other  peoples, 
have  evolved  a  strong  central  government  for  an 
Irish  nation  in  Ireland,  out  of  the  lower  tribal  sys- 
tem in  which  they  were  living.  But  this,  which  is  one 
of  the  most  intricate  and  difficult  tasks  which  ever 
arises  in  the  life  of  a  people,  they  were  not  able  to 
accomplish  now.  Ireland  in  the  time  of  the  Anglo- 
Normans  and  of  English  domination  remained  what 
it  had  been  during  the  Danish  wars  and  before,  a 

10  Ibid.,  pp.  643,  644. 


54  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

country  of  tribal  divisions,  in  which  local  warfare  and 
brutality  and  destruction  ever  continued.  How  far 
this  fatal  inability  to  unite  in  peace  and  good  order 
was  due  to  inherent  political  defect  in  Irish  character, 
as  was  once  so  widely  believed  among  Anglo-Saxons, 
or  how  far  it  was  the  natural  consequence  of  the  evil 
fate  which  descended  upon  the  Gaels,  one  cannot  know 
now,  and  one  will  decide  as  sympathy  and  prejudice 
direct. 

So  the  Middle  Ages  drew  to  a  close.  The  Irish 
raided  the  English  settlements,  drove  the  inhabitants 
farther  back,  took  many  of  their  castles,  and  in  peace 
absorbed  many  of  the  settlers  and  made  of  them  Irish- 
men. The  Irish  chieftains  fought  among  themselves, 
plundered,  slew,  and  burned,  in  furtherance  of  their 
petty  local  ambitions.  The  great  lords,  descended 
from  adventurers  once  out  of  England  and  Wales, 
were  getting  to  be  local  Irish  potentates,  and  con- 
ducted themselves  with  the  independence  and  regard 
for  their  own  interests  which  characterized  the  lawless 
barons  of  England  in  the  worst  days  of  maintenance 
and  livery.  The  Pale  shrank  farther  and  farther 
back  toward  Dublin.  The  power  of  England,  feeble 
at  home,  was  almost  gone  in  Ireland.  What  Eng- 
land had  accomplished  in  Ireland  was  mostly  an  evil 
thing.  She  had  not  really  conquered  it,  but  she  had 
been  able  to  retard  its  own  development,  keep  its 
people  from  their  heritage,  whatever  that  might  have 
been,  and  she  had  sowed  evil  seeds  for  the  future.  As 


ANGLO-NORMANS  IN  IRELAND      55 

one  peers  far  back  into  this  old  time,  he  is  oppressed 
with  sadness  more  than  with  anger,  for  here  was  the 
result  of  circumstance,  ignorance,  and  incapacity, 
rather  than  malevolent  intention. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CONQUEST  AND  TAKING  OF  THE  LAND 

It  seems  incredible  that  a  race  so  utterly  destroyed  by 
sword,  fire,  and  famine  did  not  absolutely  perish,  and  that 
provinces  so  devastated  could  have  ever  recovered.  But 
the  race  did  not  perish.  In  spite  of  all,  the  native  Irish 
survived,  gathered  strength  again,  and  retilled  their  wasted 
lands.  .  .  .  Annihilation  was  tried,  God  only  knows  with 
what  desperate  thoroughness,  but  it  failed. 

Lord  Dunraven,  The  Legacy  of  Past  Years,  p.  33. 

In  Ireland  there  was  peace.  The  domination  of  the 
colonists  was  absolute.  The  native  population  was  tran- 
quil with  the  ghastly  tranquillity  of  exhaustion  and  of 
despair  .  .  .  more  than  a  century  passed  away  without 
one  general  insurrection.  .  .  .  Nor  was  this  submission  the 
effect  of  content,  but  of  mere  stupefaction  and  brokenness 
of  heart.  The  iron  had  entered  into  the  soul. 

Macaulay,  History  of  England,  chapter  xvii. 

WHAT  we  call  the  medieval  period  had  come 
to  an  end  as  the  result  of  slow  operation  of 
many  causes.  Tribalism  lingered  on  in  Ireland  and 
in  north  Scotland;  feudal  disorganization  was  to 
continue  for  long  years  in  Italy  and  the  German 
lands ;  but  generally  in  western  Europe  there  began  a 
modern  period,  characterized  by  profound  religious, 
political,  and  intellectual  changes.  In  the  most  pro- 
gressive parts  of  Europe  large  political  alterations 

56 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  57 

were  taking  place.  This  was  a  time  in  Spain,  in 
France,  and  in  England  when  old  local  jurisdiction 
was  finally  giving  place  to  strong  central  government ; 
when  small  divisions  of  the  people  were  at  last  being 
united  through  a  rising  spirit  of  union  and  national- 
ism ;  when  compact  nations  were  getting  strong  rulers 
and  more  capable  administration  and  greater  peace, 
security,  and  prosperity.  These  tasks  were  almost 
completed  at  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  once 
accomplished  there  was  to  come  a  period  when  men's 
minds  would  turn  to  enterprises  strange  and  new. 
In  the  Renaissance  they  would  explore  realms  of  the 
intellect  long  forgotten  or  not  discovered  before.  In 
the  Reformation  they  would  search  profoundly  the 
religion  which  had  so  long  sustained  them.  It  was 
the  age  of  discovery:  new  lands  were  to  be  found, 
and  there  would  be  in  the  strong  young  nations  just 
formed  the  ambition  to  build  empires,  to  subdue  other 
peoples,  and  include  them  in  new,  greater,  and 
stronger  jurisdictions.  There  was  freshness  of 
thought,  new  power  of  mind,  large  ambition,  and 
sense  of  power.  Alas,  it  was  also  an  age  of  inhu- 
manity and  crudeness.  Many  a  wicked  thing  was 
to  be  done,  because  men  knew  no  better  yet,  and  be- 
cause they  had  not  learned  to  care.  Englishmen  now 
with  their  heritage  of  humanity  from  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries,  deplore  the  things  done  in 
Ireland  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
But  it  might  have  been  well  for  some  rash  Irishmen  in 
the  past  few  years  to  remember  that  the  hard  and  evil 


58  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

practices  of  Englishmen  then  were  never  more  organ- 
ized or  more  widely  and  deliberately  applied  than  in 
the  scientific  barbarism  of  the  Germans  in  the  great 
war  lately  ended.  Englishmen  sinned  long  ago,  and 
have  long  since  repented  and  sought  to  atone.  What 
they  did  crudely  generations  ago  has  been  partly  ap- 
plied in  Prussian  Poland  and  Alsace-Lorraine  since 
the  time  of  Bismarck,  and  terribly  in  all  of  Europe 
which  the  Germans  could  reach  in  the  years  after 
1914. 

The  Tudor  and  Stuart  periods  of  English  and  of 
Irish  history  are  the  time  when  an  English  nation- 
state  having  been  built  up  from  London,  England 
strove  to  acquire  possessions  overseas,  and  thus 
make  a  greater  Britain.  From  rising  ambitions  and 
new  consciousness  of  power,  and  also  because  of 
political  necessities,  in  competition  with  Spain  and 
with  France,  England  tried  to  conquer  Ireland  com- 
pletely. This  was  undertaken  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, and  in  the  seventeenth  it  was  completed.  After 
long  wars,  after  immense  misery  and  woe,  the  pro- 
cess of  conquest  was  finished.  It  was  made  terrible 
by  systematic  taking  of  the  land  from  the  natives, 
for  conquest  and  confiscation  went  hand  in  hand. 

In  1485  Henry  VII  ascended  the  throne  of  Eng- 
land. His  position  was  difficult  at  first,  and  he  came 
at  the  end  of  a  period  of  confusion  and  disorder  in 
England,  but  he  was  a  man  of  very  great  ability, 
and  in  the  end  he  succeeded  very  largely  in  what  he 
undertook,  which  was  the  making  of  a  strong  state 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  59 

and  government  and  also  a  united  nation.  After- 
wards men  thought  that  his  years  were  the  beginning 
of  modern,  times  in  England.  When  he  began  his 
work  England's  authority  in  Ireland  had  disappeared. 
The  Pale  was  only  a  small  district  about  Dublin,  in 
which  the  people  lived  in  terror  of  the  Irish  tribes, 
for  the  sake  of  peace  paying  them  blackmail.  Else- 
where the  English  settlers  had  come  to  be  as  Irish 
almost  as  the  natives,  using  Celtic  speech,  manners, 
and  law.  The  great  men  descended  from  Norman  in- 
vaders were  powerful  Irish  lords ;  they  had  their  bards 
and  their  historians  like  Gaelic  chieftains;  often  they 
did  not  know  English;  and  some  of  them,  like  the 
Geraldines,  descendants  of  men  who  had  come  in 
Strongbow's  time,  were  more  trusted  and  followed 
by  the  Celtic  inhabitants  than  sons  of  old  Gaelic 
houses. 

The  English  colonists  in  Ireland  had  sided  with 
York  in  the  great  wars  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
now  twice  received  opponents  of  Henry,  pretenders 
to  the  throne.  Therefore,  the  king  resolved  to  make 
certain  changes  in  Ireland  which  would  bring  the 
island  more  completely  under  his  power.  In  149^, 
Sir  Edward  Poynings  was  sent  out  as  lord  deputy. 
In  that  year  he  convened  at  Drogheda  a  parliament 
at  which  was  passed  the  well-known  Poynings  Law. 
It  provided  that  thereafter  no  parliament  might  be 
held  in  Ireland  until  the  Irish  executive  and  privy 
council  had  informed  the  English  king  of  the  legis- 
lation intended,  and  until  the  proposed  laws  had  been 


60  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

approved  by  the  king  and  his  council.  Existing 
English  laws  affecting  the  public  weal  were  to  have 
force  in  Ireland.  Most  of  the  Statute  of  Kilkenny 
was  revived  and  confirmed.  Generally  in  after  times 
the  first  of  these  provisions  was  known  as  Poynings 
Law.  By  its  operation  the  Irish  parliament,  which 
had  developed  during  the  Middle  Ages  with  the  par- 
liament of  England,  which  had  been  independent  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  it  was  subordinate  to  the  king,  and 
which  had  on  one  memorable  occasion  in  1449  dis- 
tinctly asserted  its  independence,  was  reduced  to  en- 
tire dependence  upon  the  king  of  England  and  his 
council.  It  was  indeed  only  a  parliament  of  the  Eng- 
lish settlers  in  Ireland,  so  that  the  great  body  of  the 
population,  the  Celtic  natives,  cared  nothing,  perhaps, 
for  its  fate,  governed  as  they  still  were  by  Brehon 
and  old  Irish  custom;  yet  later  on,  when  English  law 
was  extended  over  all  the  country,  it  became  the  in- 
strument by  which  England  dealt  with  the  Irish  peo- 
ple. 

Henry  attempted  to  govern  Ireland  through  Eng- 
lish officials,  but  succeeded  no  better  than  others  be- 
fore him.  He  then  turned  to  a  powerful  Anglo-Irish 
leader,  Gerald  Fitzgerald,  "the  great  Earl  of  Kil- 
dare,"  who  had  been  doing  much  as  he  pleased.  "All 
Ireland  cannot  rule  this  man!"  was  the  well-known 
accusation  against  him.  "Then  if  all  Ireland  can- 
not rule  him,  he  shall  rule  all  Ireland,"  said  the  king, 
as  he  made  him  the  lord  lieutenant.  He  continued  a 
faithful  servant  to  the  king,  and  afterward  to  Henry 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  61 

VIII,  acting  with  vigor  in  the  tribal  wars,  and  fight- 
ing against  Irish  chieftains.  His  son  and  his  grand- 
son followed  in  this  high  position,  while  from  time  to 
time  great  officials  were  sent  out  from  England. 

In  general  the  policy  of  Henry  VIII  was  one  of 
conciliation,  though  he  dealt  with  the  chieftains  and 
lords,  and,  as  was  usual  then,  recked  little  of  the  mass 
of  the  people.  There  was  much  confusion.  There 
were  rebellions  and  wars  which  brought  unspeakable 
desolation  and  misery;  and  after  varying  adventures 
the  Geraldine  house  of  Kildare  was  nearly  extermi- 
nated. As  the  aristocracy  was  humbled  in  England 
by  the  strong  rising  power  of  the  king,  so  were  the 
great  Anglo-Irish  houses  destroyed  or  bridled  in  Ire- 
land. And  the  vast  changes  in  England  when  Henry 
broke  with  Rome  and  took  the  monastic  property, 
reached  into  Ireland  also.  The  king  attempted  after 
a  while  to  assert  his  position  in  Ireland  as  much  as  in 
England.  In  1536  and  the  following  year,  an  Irish 
parliament  declared  Henry  supreme  head  of  the 
church,  and  dissolved  all  connection  with  the  Pope. 
Religious  houses  were  suppressed  and  their  property 
taken  as  in  England.  Old  laws  were  revived  which 
prevented  the  mingling  of  the  English  and  the  Irish. 
Bribery  and  cunning  completed  what  the  king  did 
not  accomplish  by  force,  and  the  Irish  chiefs  were 
incited  to  work  one  another's  destruction.  At  last 
in  the  midst  of  misery  and  confusion,  and  as  a  result 
of  the  king's  continued  policy  of  pressure  and  per- 
suasion, the  Irish  leaders  were  disposed  to  submit  to 


62  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

him  and  make  peace.  Accordingly,  in  1541,  a  parlia- 
ment was  assembled,  which,  for  the  first  time,  Irish 
natives  attended.  Many  of  the  Anglo-Irish  members 
understood  no  English,  so  that  the  speeches  were 
rendered  in  Gaelic.  Here  was  conferred  upon 
Henry  and  his  successors  the  title  of  king  of  Ireland, 
formally  enhancing  his  authority,  and  relieving  him  of 
the  older  title  once  conferred  by  the  Pope.  This 
statute  passed  in  a  parliament  said  to  have  been  care- 
fully bribed  and  packed,  was  carried  without  dissent, 
and  was  followed  by  general  submission  to  the  king, 
not  the  first,  yet  the  first  real  submission.  Every 
chief  of  consequence  in  the  country  gave  his  alle- 
giance. 

This  yielding  to  the  king's  temporal  and  ecclesias- 
tical authority,  brought  about  by  his  conciliatory  at- 
titude, by  his  skilful  management,  and  by  wide  dis- 
tribution of  honors  and  favors,  was  not  a  submission 
of  the  Irish  people,  who  took  no  part  in  it  and  knew 
little  or  nothing  about  it.  Henry  had  won  the  chiefs 
by  giving  them  the  titles  to  the  tribal  lands  which  by 
Brehon  Law  were  the  property  of  the  members  of  the 
clan  or  the  tribe.  The  ownership  of  the  members  had, 
indeed,  for  a  long  time  been  weakening  with  the 
gradual  weakening  of  the  Celtic  law,  from  the  influ- 
ence of  English  settlers  and  from  economic  changes, 
so  that  the  position  of  many  of  the  members  had  come 
to  be  that  of  the  old  fudirs  or  non-free  members  of  the 
community.  Nevertheless  memory  of  the  old  right 
lingered  deep  in  the  consciousness  of  the  people,  even 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  63 

where  it  was  dying  in  fact,  and  the  memory  persisted 
for  a  long  while  after.  In  Ireland,  as  in  England, 
the  great  changes  of  this  period  were  carried  through 
by  the  government  and  the  leaders.  After  a  while 
it  was  seen  that  in  England  the  mass  of  the  people 
wished  them,  and  so  they  remained.  But  this  was  not 
so  in  Ireland.  The  chiefs  had  in  some  manner  been 
won  to  the  English  king;  the  people  clung  to  their 
old  religious  system  and  rights  of  tribe  and  of  land. 
There  was  still  to  be  reckoning  with  them. 

In  respect  of  Ireland  the  conduct  of  Henry,  marred 
though  it  was  by  evil,  had  been,  if  the  age  is  con- 
sidered, moderate  and  not  very  cruel.  It  was  neither 
enlightened  nor  considerate  of  the  Celtic  people. 
The  general  idea  was  always  to  prevent  the  absorption 
of  the  English  settlers  into  the  Irish  people,  and  also, 
if  possible,  to  effect  the  Anglicizing  of  the  Gaelic  in- 
habitants. Steadily  the  power  of  the  king  was  en- 
larged. For  the  most  part  his  policy  succeeded,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  reign  the  chiefs  seemed  contented, 
the  country  was  at  peace,  and  it  appeared  that  the 
English  power  in  the  island  was  stronger  than  ever 
before. 

But  now  began  a  time  more  dreadful  than  any  be- 
fore it,  a  period  of  religious  divergence  and  larger 
political  ambitions,  a  period  of  great  rebellions,  ter- 
rible defeats,  widespread  confiscations  of  the  land, 
and  methodical  plantation  of  aliens  in  the  island ;  and 
when  at  last  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  thing  was  done,  the  Irish  people  were  ruined  and 


64  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

submerged,  their  religion  trampled  down,  and  their 
Irish  culture  very  largely  destroyed.  Under  Mary 
and  Elizabeth  and  James  I,  English  power  in  Ireland 
was  established  and  consolidated  by  ruthless  war  and 
expulsion  and  even  extermination  of  the  Celtic  peo- 
ple, and  the  planting  of  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen 
in  their  place ;  and  this  policy,  which  seems  so  horrible 
now,  was  often  urged  forward  by  the  English  settlers 
ever  more  closely  bound  to  England. 

In  England  the  Reformation  began  openly  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.  In  1551  Protestant  doctrines 
and  forms  were  brought  into  Ireland.  The  Catholic 
system  was  restored  under  Mary,  but  overthrown 
again  when  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne.  In  Eng- 
land the  process  of  transition  was  difficult  enough, 
but  as  time  went  on  the  majority  of  the  people  gave 
up  their  attachment  to  Rome,  and  this  was  evident 
by  the  time  the  Armada  was  defeated.  But  in  Ire- 
land the  change  was  made  by  authority  and  not  ac- 
cepted by  the  Irish  natives. 

So  there  came  into  being  the  last  of  the  great  forces 
which  have  operated  to  keep  the  English  and  the 
Irish  peoples  apart.  There  had  been  differences  of 
temperament  and  of  race ;  one  had  developed  a  strong 
national  government,  the  other  remained  with  its 
tribal  polity ;  the  one  had  developed  its  Common  Law, 
the  other  clung  to  the  Brehon  customs ;  and  yet  in  the 
course  of  time  there  had  been  so  much  fusion  as  to 
promise  well  for  the  future,  except  that  this  fusion 
was  absorbing  the  English  into  the  Irish,  whereas  the 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  65 

English  government  desired  to  draw  Irishmen  unto 
itself.  Perhaps  this  might  have  been  done  after  a 
while,  as  much  as  in  Wales  or  in  Scotland,  but  now 
came  another  influence  to  hold  the  two  apart,  rein- 
forcing the  other  obstacles  until  there  was  a  barrier 
scarce  to  be  crossed.  Since  the  days  of  Patrick  and 
Columba  the  Irish  people  had  been  of  the  old  Cath- 
olic faith.  It  was  administered  to  them  by  priests 
who  spoke  the  Gaelic  tongue.  When  the  Irish  church 
was  regulated  under  Elizabeth,  provision  was  made 
that  none  should  be  appointed  as  pastors  unless  they 
spoke  English.  This  was  strictly  in  accord  with  con- 
temporary ideas  of  consolidating  English  power  and 
rendering  the  people  English,  but  it  resulted  in  this, 
that  Protestantism  got  no  hold  on  the  people,  and  that 
the  old  faith,  taught  now  by  the  priests  proscribed, 
came  to  be  a  thing  peculiarly  their  own,  with  the 
Protestant  religion  in  their  minds  pertaining  to  the 
oppressor.  Hence  the  Irish  clung  to  Catholicism 
with  all  the  passionate  fervor  of  their  nature,  and  in 
the  days  of  strong  religious  feeling,  persecution,  and 
religious  wars,  a  great  gulf  was  fixed  which  remains 
to  the  present.  The  Irish  were  Roman  Catholics; 
but  Protestantism  remained  the  state  religion  until 
the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  in  1869. 

A  variety  of  forces  worked  together  now  for  the 
destruction  of  Celtic  Ireland.  Social,  economic,  and 
religious  factors  aroused  discontent  in  the  natives  and 
drove  them  into  rebellion.  Steadily  also  English 
power  was  exerted  to  make  Ireland  more  truly  a  de- 


66  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

pendency  of  England.  They  are  mistaken  who  be- 
lieve that  this  resulted  merely  from  blind  greed  and 
lust  after  conquest.  It  was  in  pursuance  of  sound 
statecraft  that  Ireland  was  sought  and  held  firmly. 
"The  things  men  fight  for"  are  often  the  result  of 
natural  forces  and  geographical  position  rather  than 
human  passion.  As  the  rivalries  of  great  states  de- 
veloped at  this  time  and  the  greater  rivalries  of  em- 
pires and  colonial  dominions,  it  was  seen,  what  had 
not  been  so  true  before,  that  because  of  mere  geo- 
graphical position  England  was  not  safe  with  Ire- 
land uncontrolled  or  unfriendly.  "In  the  great  sea- 
wars  of  the  past,"  says  Admiral  Lord  Charles  Beres- 
ford,  "Ireland  has  always  been  regarded  by  the  enemy 
as  providing  the  base  for  a  flank  attack  upon  Eng- 
land." *  It  was  in  Ireland  that  the  pretenders  began 
their  operations  in  the  time  of  Henry  VII,  and  assist- 
ance to  the  natives  was  one  of  the  schemes  of  France 
in  the  rivalry  between  Henry  VIII  and  Francis. 
With  the  great  development  of  English  and  of  Span- 
ish sea  power  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  and  Philip  II, 
Ireland  became  almost  as  great  a  problem  to  English 
statesmen  dealing  with  the  machinations  of  Spain  as 
England  was  to  the  Spanish  leaders  striving  to  re- 
conquer the  Netherlands.  In  each  case  the  naval  and 
geographical  situation  was  of  immense  importance. 
Actually  Philip  did  attack  England  through  Ireland, 
sending  troops  to  the  Irish  rebels,  and  some  of  the 

i  "Home  Rule  and  Naval  Defence,"  in  Against  Home  Rule,  the  Case 
for  the  Union  (London,  1912),  p.  189. 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  67 

best  known  military  exploits  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
were  in  grim  and  merciless  fighting  against  the  in- 
vaders. When  the  Stuart  kings  attempted  to  erect 
a  despotism  of  divine  right  in  England,  their  great 
minister  turned  to  Ireland  as  a  source  of  soldiers  and 
supplies.  As  naval  power  further  developed  and 
naval  strategy  was  more  deliberately  worked  out,  a 
stroke  at  England  through  Ireland  became  part  of 
the  plan  of  every  one  of  the  enemies  of  England. 
So  it  remained  throughout  the  wars  with  France  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  just  as  it 
was  in  the  mind  of  Bernhardi  at  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth.  Admiral  Mahan  once  pointed  out  how  in 
the  crisis  of  the  struggle  between  England  and  France 
in  the  days  of  William  and  Mary,  the  French  fleet 
struck  at  the  allied  fleets  in  the  Channel  while  a  strong 
French  force  was  sent  against  the  English  line  of 
communication  across  Irish  waters ;  and  readers  of  the 
narrative  of  Macaulay  will  not  forget  how  a  French 
expedition  went  to  the  assistance  of  James  and  the 
Irish  soldiers  in  Ireland.  So  it  was  in  the  wars  which 
followed  the  French  Revolution.  There  were  at- 
tempts to  land  French  troops  in  Ireland  in  1796  and 
1798.  If  it  be  said  that  Spaniards  and  Frenchmen 
were  called  by  Irishmen  to  help  them  to  be  free  of 
intolerable  conditions  and  win  their  independence,  it 
must  be  answered  that  this  is  certainly  true;  but  it 
must  at  the  same  time  be  said  that  for  their  part 
France  and  Spain  were  using  Ireland  to  damage 
England,  and  that  to  England  the  secure  possession 


68  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  Ireland  seemed  from  the  nature  of  things  a  matter 
of  vital  necessity.  I  shall  hereafter  endeavor  to  show 
that  this  fundamental  element  in  political  and  mari- 
time strategy  has  not  disappeared,  but  has  assumed 
more  importance  with  the  passage  of  time,  and  that 
recently  it  has  constituted  the  most  important  of  all 
the  reasons  why  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  with  a 
view  to  the  interests  of  their  forty  millions  of  people, 
dare  not  think  of  the  separation  from  them  of  Ireland 
or  of  its  complete  independence.  Unfortunately  this 
condition  of  things  will  persist  so  long  as  there  are 
international  rivalries  and  wars  and  rumors  of  wars. 
Therefore  the  English  statesmen  who  sought  to 
build  up  a  strong  England  in  the  company  of  a  greater 
Spain  and  a  greater  France,  made  it  a  definite  and 
fundamental  policy  to  bind  Ireland  to  England 
securely.  For  all  larger  purposes  the  British  Isles 
are  one  group  whose  different  peoples  would  be  best 
off  together,  supposing  there  was  fair  dealing  be- 
tween them,  and  the  experience  of  ages  has  made  this 
evident  to  the  inhabitants  of  Scotland  and  Wales. 
In  the  course  of  time  it  would  doubtless  have  been 
manifest  to  the  Irish  people  that  their  best  interests 
lay  in  union  with  England  in  respect  of  all  world 
affairs,  so  that  a  conquest  thorough  and  complete 
would  ultimately  have  been  no  disaster,  had  the  con- 
querors been  generous  and  humane,  and  shared  with 
their  new  subjects  the  rights  and  privileges  which 
they  held  dear  themselves.  This  is  where  memory 
arises  in  judgment,  and  this  is  why  the  past  has 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  69 

put  such  a  curse  on  the  present :  it  is  not  that  Ireland 
should  not  have  been  united  closely  with  England, 
but  that  there  ought  not  to  have  been  such  a  terrible 
fate  meted  out  to  the  Irish  in  the  process. 

Seldom  has  such  doom  fallen  upon  men  and  women 
in  modern  times  as  came  with  the  complete  conquest 
of  Ireland.  The  land  was  taken  from  its  Irish  pos- 
sessors, and  the  natives  driven  out,  slaughtered,  or  re- 
duced to  servitude  awful  and  hopeless.  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  it  all  now.  Some  of  the  blame  must 
be  put  upon  the  cruel  spirit  of  the  times;  something 
to  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the  case.  There  had 
been  age-long  fighting  and  disorder  in  Ireland,  tribal 
warfare,  burning  and  plundering  on  both  sides. 
There  was  mighty  danger  then;  strong  was  the  feel- 
ing of  the  age  of  colonial  conquest  and  religious  wars ; 
fearful  and  drastic  remedies  were  wont  to  be  applied. 

In  1547,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  after  the  con- 
quering of  some  Irish  chiefs,  the  country  of  Leix  and 
Offaly  was  given  to  certain  Englishmen  in  much  the 
same  fashion  that  territory  was  later  on  granted  to 
adventurers  in  Virginia  and  Carolina.  They  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  expel  the  native  inhabitants  and 
put  English  tenants  in  their  place.  Whatever  may 
be  thought  of  the  consequences  of  this  in  a  thinly 
peopled  country  like  Maryland  or  Massachusetts  Bay, 
and  of  the  ensuing  spoliation  of  the  Indians,  the  con- 
sequences were  very  horrible  in  a  populous  country 
like  Ireland,  where  the  old  possessors  naturally  re- 
sisted with  desperation,  and  were  hunted  like  .beasts 


70  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  prey.  All  during  the  reign  of  Edward  fighting 
went  on  savagely,  and  the  promoters  of  the  enterprise 
profited  little.  In  Mary's  time  the  country  was  made 
into  two  counties,  property  of  the  crown,  to  be  held 
strongly,  divided  into  farms  and  estates,  and  replanted 
with  English  settlers.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  the 
plantation  system  in  Ireland.  A  war  of  extermina- 
tion was  carried  on  with  torture  and  murder,  the  un- 
happy Irish  making  savage  reprisals.  Thus  by  the 
time  of  Elizabeth  the  question  of  land,  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  to  the  natives,  was  definitely  added  to 
religious  difference  and  religious  persecution,  and  the 
two  increased  the  old  tribal  resistance  and  warfare. 

Ireland  was  the  most  troubled  part  of  Elizabeth's 
dominions,  and  there  some  of  her  great  captains,  like 
Essex,  Sidney,  and  Raleigh,  rose  in  service,  and  did 
terrible  deeds  which  their  admirers  wish  not  to  remem- 
ber. In  the  south,  in  Munster  and  Connaught,  the 
ceaseless  feuds  of  the  Butler  and  Geraldine  families 
culminated  about  1565  in  the  rebellion  of  the  Catholic 
Earl  of  Desmond,  leader  of  the  Fitzgeralds.  Over 
Munster,  Connaught,  and  at  length  over  Leinster,  the 
fighting  spread,  engrossing  the  attention  of  the  lord 
deputy,  Sir  Henry  Sidney,  and  other  English  lead- 
ers. At  last,  after  years  of  terrible  and  weary  fight- 
ing, the  struggle  ended  with  the  death  of  the  Irish 
leader  and  all  resistance  was  crushed.  Starvation 
and  systematic  destruction  completed  what  the  sword 
had  done  partly.  In  1582  information  was  given  to 
Elizabeth  that  30,000  had  been  starved  to  death  in 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  71 

Munster  as  a  result  of  destroying  the  crops.  The 
poet  Spenser  wrote  of  the  advantage  to  be  gained  by 
this  method:  "the  end  will  ...  be  very  short  and 
much  sooner  than  can  be  in  so  great  a  trouble,  al- 
though there  should  none  of  them  fall  by  the  sword 
.  .  .  yet  thus  being  kept  from  manurance,  and  their 
cattle  from  running  abroad,  by  this  hard  restraint 
they  would  quickly  consume  themselves,  and  devoure 
one  another."  He  gives  a  picture  of  desolation  and 
despair  to  stir  the  heart  even  now: 

Ere  one  yeare  and  a  halfe  they  were  brought  to  such 
wretchednesse,  as  that  any  stony  heart  would  have  rued  the 
same.  Out  of  every  corner  of  the  woods  and  glynnes,  they 
came  creeping  forth  upon  their  hands,  for  their  legges  could 
not  beare  them ;  they  looked  like  anatomies  of  death,  they 
spake  like  ghosts  crying  out  of  their  graves ;  they  did  eate 
the  dead  carrions,  happy  where  they  could  finde  them,  yea, 
and  one  another  soone  after,  insomuch  as  the  very  carcasses 
they  spared  not  to  scrape  out  of  their  graves ;  and,  if  they 
found  a  plot  of  water-cresses  or  shamrocks,  there  they 
flocked  as  to  a  feast  for  the  time,  yet  not  able  long  to  con- 
tinue therewithall ;  that  in  short  space  there  were  none  al- 
most left,  and  a  most  populous  and  plentifull  countrey  sud- 
uainely  left  voyde  of  man  and  beast.  .  .  .2 

The  details  of  the  struggle  have  been  forgotten,  but 
the  memory  of  horror  long  remained  imprinted  in  the 
national  traditions. 

In  1586  the  estates  of  Desmond  and  his  adherents, 
about  1,000,000  acres,  were  confiscated.  Proclama- 

2  A  View  of  the  State  of  Ireland,  etc.  (1596),  in  Collection  of  Tracts 
and  Treatises,  i.  525,  526, 


72  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

tion  in  England  invited  gentlemen  to  undertake  the 
plantation  of  this  rich  territory.  The  "undertakers" 
were  to  settle  English  families  on  their  holdings  as 
tenants,  and  no  Irish  were  to  be  taken.  Low  rents 
and  other  inducements  were  offered  to  attract  set- 
tlers. Sir  Walter  Raleigh  took  42,000  acres  in  Cork 
and  Waterford;  Edmund  Spenser  12,000  in  Cork. 
But  this  first  plantation  in  Munster  was  largely  a  fail- 
ure. Not  many  settlers  came  from  England;  the 
natives  were  not  expropriated,  and  such  as  survived 
the  fighting  and  turmoil  which  ensued  were  received 
as  tenants.  But  the  local  Irish  gentry  was  destroyed, 
and  English  landlords,  many  of  them  absentees,  ap- 
peared in  their  stead. 

Meanwhile  in  Ulster,  in  the  north,  much  the  same 
thing  had  occurred.  About  1551  began  a  rising  led 
by  Shane  O'Neill.  A  long  struggle  ensued,  in  which 
tribal  dissension  and  opposition  to  the  English  were 
mingled  together.  O'Neill  desired  to  free  Ulster 
from  English  influence  and  unite  the  northern  tribes 
under  his  rule.  After  many  vicissitudes,  and  griev- 
ous trouble  to  the  English  leaders,  at  last  he  was 
ruined.  His  attainder  was  followed  by  the  confisca- 
tion of  more  than  half  of  Ulster.  At  once  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  drive  out  the  natives  and  plant 
English  settlers  in  their  stead.  In  1573  several  no- 
blemen tried  to  make  a  fortune  in  this  enterprise. 
Soon  came  burning,  slaughter,  and  destruction  of 
crops,  massacre,  treachery,  and  ferocious  resistance 
by  the  natives. 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  73 

Little  wonder  that  Spaniards  were  invited  to  bring 
help  to  the  natives,  and  that  in  the  great  struggle 
of  the  time  of  the  Armada  emissaries  of  the  Pope 
and  of  Spain  easily  stirred  up  trouble  in  the  island. 
In  1595,  during  the  later  years  of  Elizabeth,  the  earl 
of  Tyrone  led  a  great  movement  against  the  English 
in  Ulster.  He  sought  help  from  Spain,  and  after 
many  adventures  won  a  considerable  triumph.  Es- 
sex, favorite  of  the  queen,  was  sent  with  a  powerful 
army,  but  accomplished  nothing,  and  being  compelled, 
perhaps,  to  give  Tyrone  liberal  terms,  returned,  as  is 
well  known,  to  the  queen's  anger  and  shortly  after 
death  on  the  scaffold.  From  the  great  power  which 
Tyrone  attained,  slowly  his  fortunes  waned,  but  his 
resistance  did  not  come  to  an  end  till  the  very  end 
of  Elizabeth's  life.  Complete  collapse  of  Irish  re- 
sistance came  with  the  flight  of  the  Irish  earls  in  1607, 
and  this  indeed  marked  the  end  of  the  old  tribal  sys- 
tem in  Ireland. 

Early  in  the  reign  of  James  I  large  confiscations 
were  made  in  the  north,  and  the  great  plantation  of 
Ulster  laid  out.  In  1611,  six  counties,  the  lands  of 
Tyrone  and  Tyrconnel,  were  given  to  English  and 
Scottish  undertakers,  who  planted  them  with  colon- 
ists from  England  and  Scotland,  especially  the  bor- 
der country.  Many  of  the  natives  were  driven  out; 
many  more  remained  as  laborers  and  tenants.  This 
was  the  most  successful  of  the  plantations,  and  its 
results  constitute  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  the  pres- 
ent day  problems  of  Ireland.  By  1620  the  provinces 


74  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  Ulster,  Munster,  arid  Leinster  had  largely  been 
laid  out  in  plantations.  There  was  even  a  proposal 
to  extend  the  system  to  Connaught. 

With  respect  to  these  plantations,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  they  were  not  isolated  phenomena 
of  this  time,  for  there  were  plantations  in  America 
and  the  West  Indies,  and  in  each  case  the  purpose 
was  the  same,  the  extension  of  the  trade  of  England, 
and  the  settling  of  some  of  her  people  in  dominions 
over  the  sea.  In  America,  where  lands  were  vacant 
or  held  by  savages  in  scanty  numbers,  the  results  are 
the  magnificent  commonwealths  of  the  western  world. 
But  in  Ireland,  where  the  intention  was  also  to  con- 
quer the  country  completely  by  extending  England 
into  Ireland,  the  operation  was  incredibly  heartless 
and  cruel.  There  was  no  thought  of  the  rights  of  the 
Irish  people.  The  Romans  had  once  done  such 
things,  and  there  are  events  not  very  different  in  the 
history  of  ancient  and  medieval  times.  In  Ireland 
plantation  succeeded  for  the  most  part  only  enough 
to  cause  misery  to  the  natives.  Its  immediate  results 
were  massacre,  suffering,  and  ruin,  desperate  resist- 
ance, and  vengeful  memories  that  sometimes  seem  not 
destined  to  die.  Englishmen  nowadays,  as  many  of 
them  for  a  long  while  past,  repent  this,  and  sorrow 
that  such  things  once  were  done. 

The  beginning  of  the  Stuart  period  was  marked  by 
some  very  important  changes.  In  1604  and  the  years 
following  English  law  was  introduced  into  northern 
Ireland,  then  extended  over  the  country.  Sheriffs 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  75 

and  judges  were  appointed,  and  the  Celtic  inhabitants 
for  the  first  time  put  under  the  protection  of  the  gov- 
ernment. This  had  been  sought  long  before  by  some 
of  the  natives,  and  it  would  have  been  well  for  them 
if  they  had  been  able  to  get  it.  Now  it  came  when 
the  land  was  being  taken  away  from  them,  and,  indeed, 
its  sudden  application  to  the  tenure  of  land  worked 
hardship  to  many  of  the  members  of  the  septs,  whose 
rights  were  destroyed  in  favor  of  those  who  possessed 
the  land  when  the  decree  went  into  effect.  Further- 
more, in  the  following  years,  under  the  new  law,  all 
sorts  of  chicanery  and  oppression  were  used  to  despoil 
the  natives  of  still  more  of  their  landed  possessions. 
In  1605  tanistry  and  gavelkind  were  abolished,  and 
inheritance  made  subject  to  the  English  law. 

This  was  a  period  of  great  changes  and  revolution 
in  England,  in  the  course  of  which  the  fortunes  of 
Ireland  were  profoundly  affected  for  the  worse.  Im- 
mense alteration  of  circumstances  had  brought  about 
a  conflict  between  parliamentary  power  and  royal 
prerogative  under  divine  right.  Once  the  king's 
power  had  been  almost  supreme  in  the  state;  it  was 
yet  supreme  in  outlying  dominions,  the  colonies  and 
the  scattered  islands,  so  far  as  he  could  enforce  it; 
but  in  England  the  greatness  of  parliament  was  rising 
as  rival  and  superior. 

The  struggle  began  under  James  I,  and  grew  more 
bitter  in  the  time  of  his  son.  Then  a  great  minister 
of  the  crown,  Thomas  Wentworth,  Earl  of  Strafford, 
attempted  to  make  Ireland  completely  subservient  to 


76  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  king,  and  there  build  up  forces  which  could  im- 
pose the  royal  will  upon  England  and  Scotland.  He 
did  his  work  in  Ireland  in  the  midst  of  the  confusion 
which  followed  the  taking  of  the  land.  In  1633  he 
came  as  lord  deputy,  and  during  six  years  applied  his 
policy  of  "thorough"  or  carrying  things  through,  with 
immense  ability  and  force.  He  gave  strong  rule  and 
good  order  and  some  increase  of  prosperity  compared 
with  what  he  found,  at  the  same  time  that  he  developed 
a  well  disciplined  army  for  the  use  of  the  king.  In 
all  that  he  did  he  brooked  no  resistance.  He  was 
just  preparing  to  confiscate  lands  in  Connaught  and 
plant  English  colonists  there,  when  troubles  in  Eng- 
land called  him  back.  There  he  had  to  face  the  Com- 
mons of  the  Long  Parliament.  They  brought  him 
to  his  death  for  high  treason,  in  planning  to  overawe 
England  with  Irish  soldiers. 

Almost  at  the  moment  when  the  contest  began  be- 
tween Charles  I  and  this  parliament,  there  was  a  great 
rising  of  the  Irish  in  Ulster.  It  was  the  result  of 
general  misery  among  the  Irish,  the  system  of  planta- 
tion, the  taking  of  lands  through  legal  devices,  and  the 
proposed  spoliation  of  Connaught.  The  movement 
spread  over  the  island  until  all  but  Dublin  was  lost. 
Excesses  were  committed  by  the  vengeful  peasants 
in  massacre  and  destruction,  and  the  fearful  rumors 
which  reached  England,  purposely  much  exaggerated 
in  passing,  aroused  cries  for  vengeance  and  more  con- 
fiscation. An  army  must  be  sent  over,  but  for  some 
years  nothing  was  done,  for  neither  king  nor  parlia- 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  77 

ment  would  trust  the  other  with  control  of  the  forces, 
and  presently  came  civil  war  and  revolution  and  death 
of  the  king.  In  1649  a  republic  was  established, 
largely  founded  upon  the  military  genius  of  Crom- 
well, and  in  that  year  revenge  and  conquest  were  un- 
dertaken. In  Ireland  Cromwell  worked  with  as  ter- 
rible effect  as  in  England.  He  was  a  mighty  man, 
a  sword  of  God,  stern  in  religious  fervor,  fanatic  in 
the  cause  he  deemed  just.  His  reputation  in  the  two 
islands  is  very  different.  In  England  after  a  great 
while  he  was  seen  as  the  defender  of  parliamentary 
and  constitutional  liberties,  the  great  champion  of 
the  free  governments  of  the  English-speaking  world. 
In  Ireland  he  is  hated  to  this  day,  and  partly  that 
hatred  is  deserved,  for  there  he  bore  himself  some- 
what in  the  manner  that  we  abhorred  so  much  in  mod- 
ern Prussian  commanders.  Drogheda  he  took  by 
storm,  and  put  the  garrison  to  -the  sword  in  cold  blood. 
It  should  be  said  that  garrisons  then,  refusing  to  sur- 
render, as  the  men  of  Drogheda  did,  were  slaughtered 
when  they  had  been  overcome;  nevertheless  now  this 
act  seems  a  stain  on  the  great  man's  career.  Then 
he  conquered  all  the  eastern  part  of  the  island,  after 
which,  leaving  his  lieutenants  to  complete  the  work, 
he  went  away  to  greater  exploits  in  north  England 
and  Scotland. 

By  1652  the  work  was  done  in  Ireland,  and  done 
so  terribly  that  a  third  of  the  inhabitants  had  per- 
ished, by  the  sword,  by  pestilence,  and  by  famine. 
What  followed  was  arranged  by  parliament,  though 


78  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

because  it  was  approved  by  the  general  and  made  pos- 
sible by  his  victories,  it  is  known  as  the  "Cromwellian 
Settlement."  Henry  VIII  had  attempted  to  extend 
English  control  in  Ireland  by  conciliation  or  coercion 
of  the  chiefs;  Elizabeth  and  the  Stuarts  had  substi- 
tuted force  and  colonization;  their  system  now  was 
extended  and  made  yet  more  thorough.  Large  parts 
of  Ulster,  Leinster,  and  Munster  had  already  been 
taken  from  the  natives  for  the  plantations  established ; 
parliament  now  confiscated  practically  all  of  the  is- 
land excepting  Connaught  and  County  Clare,  the 
most  worthless  portions.  Into  them  the  Irish  own- 
ers were  pressed,  whether  they  were  native  Celts  or 
earlier  colonists  from  Britain.  The  laborers  and  arti- 
sans were  not  included  in  the  deportation.  The  lands 
thus  taken  in  the  three  provinces  were  given  to  Eng- 
lish soldiers  and  supporters  in  the  Irish  war.  It  was 
not  only  conquest  but  nearly  entire  confiscation. 

So  the  process  of  spoliation  was  practically  com- 
plete. From  the  time  of  Henry  II,  when  the  taking 
of  the  land  had  been  begun  by  adventurers  abetted  by 
the  crown,  to  the  time  of  Charles  II,  when  the  work  of 
the  Cromwellian  Settlement  was  sealed,  nearly  all  of 
Ireland  had  changed  hands  several  times  through  for- 
feiture and  confiscation.  In  England  and  in  other 
countries  also  during  the  Middle  Ages,  as  the  result 
of  rebellion  and  revolution,  the  lands  often  changed 
hands;  but  then  they  passed  from  one  lord  to  an- 
other, usually  of  the  same  race,  religion,  and  speech. 
In  Ireland  the  land  had  been  almost  entirely  taken 


CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND  79 

away  from  the  native  proprietors,  or  from  the  tribes, 
in  so  far  as  common  holding  still  persisted,  and  given 
to  alien  proprietors,  while  the  mass  of  the  people  had 
been  exterminated,  or  driven  away,  or  else  left  upon 
the  lands  of  their  ancestors  in  lowly  and  servile  de- 
pendence. This  must  always  be  remembered  in  con- 
nection with  the  later  lawlessness  of  the  Irish  and  the 
bitterness  of  the  land  wars  which  have  sometimes  dis- 
quieted the  island.  Deeply  rooted  in  the  native  mind 
were  the  feeling  that  the  rightful  owners  had  once 
been  supplanted  by  alien  masters,  and  the  instinct, 
based  upon  old  tribal  law,  that  an  occupier  ought  not 
to  be  evicted. 

With  the  Restoration  and  Charles  II  much  of 
Cromwell's  work  was  undone  in  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland,  but  Charles  was  unable  to  restore  all  the 
property  which  his  supporters  had  lost  in  England, 
and  in  Ireland  he  obtained  for  them  almost  nothing. 
In  the  next  generation  the  struggle  between  parlia- 
ment and  crown  for  supremacy  was  continued  until 
the  Revolution  of  1688.  Before  the  crisis  of  the 
struggle  James  II  sought  to  win  the  Irish  to  his  sup- 
port, and  was  aided  in  this  by  yearning  on  the  part  of 
proprietors  dispossessed  to  recover  the  lands  taken 
from  them.  When  James  fled  from  England,  and 
Ireland  supported  him  against  his  enemies,  an  Irish 
parliament  assembled  in  1689,  which  made  sweeping 
changes,  and  taking,  as  it  must  have  seemed  to  the 
members,  righteous  vengeance  upon  the  oppressors, 
restored  all  the  property  which  had  been  forfeited 


80  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

in  consequence  of  the  rebellion  of  1641.  But  the  bat- 
tle of  the  Boyne  and  the  loss  of  Limerick  ruined  the 
hopes  of  James  and  the  Irish,  and  all  this  was  un- 
done. Again  the  victory  of  the  English  was  marked 
by  confiscation.  The  work  of  the  Irish  parliament 
was  of  course  undone,  and  in  addition,  more  than  a 
million  acres  belonging  to  over  a  thousand  proprietors 
was  forfeited.  About  a  fourth  of  this  was  restored, 
but  the  remainder  was  distributed  anew,  largely  to 
the  foreign  supporters  of  William  of  Orange. 

So,  the  period  in  English  history  which  is  the  time 
of  the  Glorious  Revolution,  is  the  time  when  Irish 
hopes  came  to  an  end  for  ages.  The  Irish  had  sur- 
vived the  wars  of  extermination  of  Elizabeth  and 
Cromwell,  but  they  remained  now  an  enfeebled  race. 
Of  those  who  were  left,  some  tilled  the  soil  of  their 
fathers  little  better  than  serfs,  others  had  taken  refuge 
in  the  wild  and  forbidding  parts  of  the  west.  Four- 
fifths  of  the  land  had  been  confiscated ;  and  two-thirds 
of  all  the  good  land  was  actually  in  possession  of  alien 
owners. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   NADIR   OF   SUBJECTION 

That  the  British  Protestants  and  Church  have  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  lands  ;  five-sixths  of  all  the  housing  ;  nine- 
tenths  of  all  the  housing  in  walled  towns  and  places  of 
strength,  two-thirds  of  the  foreign  trade.  That  6  of  8  of 
all  the  Irish  live  in  a  brutish,  nasty  condition,  as  in  cabins, 
with  neither  chimney,  door,  stairs,  nor  window;  feed  chiefly 
upon  milk  and  potatoes,  whereby  their  spirits  are  not  dis- 
posed for  war. 

Sir  William  Petty,  The  Political  Anatomy  of  Ire- 
land (1672),  chapter  V,  section  1. 

So  sleeps  the  pride  of  former  days, 

So  glory's  thrill  is  o'er 
And  hearts,  that  once  beat  high  for  praise, 

Now  feel  that  pulse  no  more. 

Thus  Freedom  now  so  seldom  wakes, 

The  only  throb  she  gives, 
Is  when  some  heart  indignant  breaks, 

To  show  that  still  she  lives. 

Moore  :     "The  Harp  That  Once  Through  Tara's 

Halls,"  Irish  Melodies. 


story  to  be  related  in  this  chapter  has  often 
A  been  told,  and  it  will  often  be  retold  in  the  fu- 
ture :  an  old  tale  of  selfish  rule  and  pride  of  dominion, 
and  of  misery  deep  and  unending.  The  condition  of 
the  Irish  people  in  the  eighteenth  century  was  prob- 


81 


82  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ably  the  most  wretched  in  Europe:  or  if  there  was, 
indeed,  as  lowly  degradation  in  parts  of  the  central 
and  eastern  lands,  yet  certainly  in  Ireland  it  was  very 
far  worse  than  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of 
countries  nearby,  Scotland,  England,  the  Nether- 
lands, Spain,  and  France  of  the  old  regime.  And  be- 
cause bad  as  it  was,  it  was  not  so  intolerable  and  crush- 
ing but  that  the  victims  survived  and  continued  a 
heart-breaking  struggle,  they  have  been  able  in  the 
course  of  time  to  take  terrible  vengeance;  for  they 
have  handed  down  to  their  children  a  bitterness  and 
condemnation  which  has  been  spread  all  over  the 
world. 

Ireland,  like  other  countries  at  this  time,  was  pre- 
dominantly agricultural  and  pastoral.  From  the 
Irish  most  of  the  land  had  been  taken.  There  were 
still  many  native  proprietors  in  the  barren  Connaught 
hills,  who  in  the  midst  of  their  lonely  moors  dreamed 
of  the  days  when  their  fathers  had  lived  on  the  better 
lands  of  the  east.  Those  lands  were  now  mostly  held 
by  proprietors  or  settlers  introduced  from  Britain 
when  the  plantations  were  made  or  the  wars  had  been 
finished.  Among  them  were  sturdy  small  holders, 
but  there  had  long  been  a  tendency  here  as  across  the 
Channel  towards  consolidation  into  great  estates,  and 
now  much  of  Ireland  was  in  the  hands  of  country 
gentlemen  and  large  owners.  They  were  Protestant 
for  the  most  part,  and  generally  alien  in  race.  Upon 
their  estates  lived  most  of  the  Irish  peasantry.  Over 
them  the  landlords  had,  because  of  conditions  to  be 


THE  NADIR  OF  SUBJECTION        83 

explained,  not,  perhaps,  the  power  of  a  Prussian 
junker  or  a  Hungarian  noble,  but  powers  none  the 
less  of  dangerous  greatness.  Chesterfield,  lord  lieu- 
tenant about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
declared  that  the  poor  people  of  Ireland  were  worse 
used  than  negroes.  "The  landlord  of  an  Irish  estate 
inhabited  by  Roman  Catholics,"  wrote  Arthur  Young 
later  on,  "is  a  sort  of  despot,  who  yields  obedience  in 
whatever  concerns  the  poor  to  no  law  but  that  of  his 
will.  A  landlord  in  Ireland  can  scarcely  invent  an 
order  which  a  servant,  labourer,  or  cotter  dares  to 
refuse  to  execute."  If  any  one  complained  he  would 
be  horsewhipped,  and  no  justice  of  the  peace  would 
dare  issue  a  summons  in  his  behalf.1  He  does  speak 
of  the  kindly  relations  which  existed  between  many 
proprietors  and  their  tenants,  just  as  many  favorable 
instances  have  been  cited  in  the  slave-holding  South 
before  the  Civil  War;  but  there  were  several  condi- 
tions which  conspired  to  make  the  situation  very  bad. 
English  policy  and  conditions  in  Ireland  made  the 
great  men  a  race  of  superiors  dealing  with  inferiors 
far  beneath  them.  The  Anglo-Irish  gentry  were  im- 
provident and  fond  of  display,  and,  emulating  more 
and  more  their  wealthier  rivals  in  England,  had  to  get 
from  their  tenants  as  much  revenue  as  they  possibly 
could.  Worst  of  all  was  the  evil  of  absenteeism. 
From  much  earlier  times  alien  lords  of  Irish  estates 
had  gone  to  England  to  live  on  their  rents.  The  evil 
was  noticed  in  the  fourteenth  century,  laws  were 

i  Quoted  in  The  ABC  Home  Rule  Handbook  (London,  1912),  p.  126, 


84  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

passed  to  compel  residence  on  pain  of  forfeiture,  and 
once  Henry  VIII  made  a  seizure  of  lands  held  in 
this  way.  In  1729  a  writer  estimated  that  £627,000 
a  year  was  remitted  on  account  of  landlords  who  lived 
abroad,  and  in  the  long  list  which  he  gave  he  thought 
many  names  were  wanting.  The  absentees  were  not 
afraid  of  their  tenants,  for  they  lived  far  away  from 
them ;  and  they  had  little  desire  for  their  welfare,  be- 
cause they  were  almost  ignorant  of  their  existence. 
They  had  with  them  neither  community  of  interest  nor 
sympathy  of  race. 

The  condition  of  the  peasantry  was  miserable. 
Almost  their  only  means  of  getting  a  living  was  work- 
ing on  the  land,  -and  this  could  be  done  only  on  small 
holdings  obtained  from  some  landlord  usually  for 
high  rent.  As  population  increased  and  competition 
was  keener  for  land,  the  dues  became  higher  and  rents 
became  rackrents.  There  was  no  incentive  to  indus- 
try and  better  working,  for  if  the  tenant  improved 
the  land,  something  that  the  landlord  himself  was 
seldom  willing  to  do,  the  improvements  belonged  to 
the  landlord,  who  usually  then  raised  the  rent  because 
of  the  value  increased  by  the  improvement ;  and  if  the 
tenant  removed  he  got  nothing  for  what  he  had  done. 
Thus  these  people  lived  on,  lowly  and  miserable, 
never  far  from  starvation.  In  1729  and  1741  there 
were  famines  widespread  and  appalling. 

Nor  were  other  aspects  of  their  life  better  than 
this  economic  depression.  Irishmen  were  oppressed 
with  what  now  seems  intolerable  civil  and  religious 


THE  NADIR  OF  SUBJECTION        85 

discrimination,  but  which  was  unfortunately  charac- 
teristic of  that  age  in  England  and  almost  all  Europe. 
When  in  1691  the  Irish  army  had  surrendered  to 
William's  lieutenants,  it  was  stipulated  that  Roman 
Catholics  should  enjoy  such  exercise  of  their  religion 
as  was  consistent  with  the  law,  or  as  they  had  en- 
joyed in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  After  the  surrender 
faith  was  broken,  and  the  English  parliament  took 
measures  as  repressive  as  those  undertaken  by  Cath- 
olic authorities  in  Bohemia  and  in  Poland  in  the  days 
of  the  Counter-reformation.  It  was  provided  that 
no  person  should  sit  in  the  Irish  parliament  nor  hold 
any  office,  civil,  military,  or  ecclesiastical,  nor  practice 
law  or  medicine,  until  he  had  taken  the  oaths  of  al- 
legiance and  supremacy,  and  declared  against  tran- 
substantiation,  thus  debarring  Catholics  from  politi- 
cal and  professional  life.  Papists  must  not  possess 
arms,  nor  horses  above  the  value  of  five  pounds,  and 
it  was  lawful  any  time  to  seize  the  horse  of  a  papist 
upon  paying  him  money  to  that  value.  Penalties 
were  ordained  for  Roman  Catholics  who  undertook 
to  teach  school  publicly  or  in  private  houses,  except- 
ing the  children  of  the  family.  A  Catholic  who  went 
beyond  sea,  or  sent  any  one  else,  to  be  trained  in  pop- 
ery lost  all  civil  rights.  It  was  not  long  before  Ro- 
man Catholic  prelates  and  regular  clergy  were  ban- 
ished from  Ireland,  and  while  secular  priests  were 
allowed  to  remain,  none  were  to  be  admitted  from 
abroad,  the  intention  being  that  presently  the  Cath- 
olic clergy  should  die  out,  since  there  were  left  no 


86  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

bishops  for  new  ordination.  Thus  it  was  proposed  to 
take  from  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people  their  spir- 
itual directors,  and  destroy  Irish  and  Catholic  educa- 
tion. It  is  true  that  these  and  other  unhappy  laws 
were  not  rigidly  enforced,  and  ignorant  but  devoted 
priests  continued  to  live  among  the  peasants,  helping 
them  to  carry  on  something  of  the  old  tradition  until 
happier  days ;  but  the  wretched  people  were  compelled 
to  pay  tithes  for  the  support  of  the  ministers  of  the 
established  Protestant  church,  with  whom  they  would 
have  naught  to  do,  and  give  up  the  Irish  church 
buildings  for  a  handful  of  Protestant  worshippers, 
while  they  followed  their  own  priests  out  into  the  open 
fields.  There  were  many  other  discriminations. 
Catholic  parents  must  provide  for  Protestant  chil- 
dren ;  no  land  once  held  by  a  Protestant  could  ever  be 
possessed  by  a  papist;  among  Catholic  children  an  es- 
tate should  be  equally  divided,  but  if  the  eldest  son 
became  a  Protestant  within  a  year,  he  was  the  heir  at 
law.  Catholics  were  not  only  debarred  from  office; 
they  were  not  permitted  to  vote  in  elections.  Had 
these  laws  been  enforced  to  the  uttermost,  it  may  be, 
as  some  think,  that  Irish  Catholicism  and  national 
spirit  would  have  been  destroyed.  But  actually  the 
persecution  in  Ireland  was  far  less  than  that  which 
destroyed  Protestantism  in  Bohemia  and  Spain.  Ap- 
parently the  minority  in  power,  to  whom  many  of 
these  regulations  were  owing,  did  not  so  much  wish 
the  majority  to  conform  to  their  religion  as  to  keep 
them  in  hopeless  subjection.  "One  of  the  great  cen- 


THE  NADIR  OF  SUBJECTION        87 

tral  facts  of  Irish  history  is  that  the  colonists  never 
wished  the  Catholics  to  become  Protestants,"  says  a 
learned  authority.  Nevertheless,  he  adds,  for  a  hun- 
dred years,  "the  great  majority  of  the  inhabitants  had 
no  legal  existence,  and,  like  the  helots  and  slaves  in 
ancient  and  modern  states,  did  not  count  as  part  of 
the  commonwealth.  The  colonists  had  all  the  land, 
all  the  places  of  honour  and  emolument,  and  prac- 
tically unrestricted  liberty  to  do  with  their  helots 
whatever  they  pleased."  2 

So,  having  no  part  in  the  government  of  the  land 
where  they  lived,  debarred  from  office,  tried  in  the 
courts  of  aliens  by  a  law  not  the  law  of  their  fathers, 
despised,  treated  with  contumely,  having  no  redress, 
without  chance  to  make  a  living  except  by  lowly 
drudgery  on  confiscated  lands,  the  best  Irishmen 
fled  from  this  island  of  sorrow.  In  the  seventeenth 
century  they  had  gone  to  Spain  for  help,  but  after 
the  subjugation  by  William  they  went  into  the  serv- 
ice of  France,  and  it  is  estimated,  doubtless  with  ex- 
aggeration, that  in  the  period  1691  to  1745,  450,000 
soldiers  died  in  the  service  of  that  country.  Great 
numbers  of  them  also  went  to  the  new  promised  lands 
of  America,  some  as  slaves  and  indentured  servants, 
others  to  seek  fortune  in  the  west,  thus  beginning 
that  Celtic  emigration  to  America  which,  more  than 
a  century  later,  was  to  increase  so  greatly  as  to  be 
one  of  the  dominant  factors  in  the  history  of  the 

2W.  K.  Sullivan,  in  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History,  1691-1870  (Lon- 
don, 1907),  pp.  28,  29,  36. 


88  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

United  States.  For  a  great  while  Ireland's  best  went 
abroad:  in  the  eighteenth  century  to  France;  in  the 
nineteenth  they  went  to  America. 

Very  different  was  the  position  of  the  colonists. 
Under  the  power  of  England,  the  English  and  Scot- 
tish immigrants  lorded  it  over  the  natives,  a  part  of 
them,  who  were  members  of  the  established  church, 
holding  the  offices,  electing  the  parliament  at  Dublin, 
and  subsisting  upon  the  revenues  of  the  land,  pro- 
duced largely  by  the  native  peasants.  But  the  vicious 
system  which  protected  the  colonists  also  took  ven- 
geance upon  them.  At  one  end  of  the  scale  the  Prot- 
estant minority  in  Ireland  tyrannized  over  the  Celtic 
majority,  but  at  the  other  the  English  aristocracy 
and  commercial  classes  held  the  Irish  colonists  in  the 
hollow  of  their  hands,  and  between  these  extremes  the 
Episcopalians  in  Ireland,  one-third  of  the  Protestants 
there  and  one-eleventh  of  the  whole  population,  had 
a  monopoly  of  offices  and  privileges  and  were  able  to 
discriminate  against  the  far  more  numerous  body 
of  Protestant  dissenters.  Presbyterians  and  others 
were  gradually  cleared  from  magistracies  and  office, 
and  under  the  Act  of  Uniformity  were  always  liable 
to  prosecution.  It  will  be  seen  that  as  the  colonists 
lived  by  the  suppression  of  the  native  Irish,  so  they, 
the  minority  of  the  population  of  the  island,  were  held 
down  and  often  despised  by  a  small  part  of  their  own 
number,  who  were  members  of  the  established  church, 
for  whom  most  of  the  offices  and  rewards  of  state  were 
reserved,  while  even  this  smaller  minority,  at  the  very 


THE  NADIR  OF  SUBJECTION        89 

top  though  it  was  in  Ireland,  founded  its  power  alto- 
gether upon  support  from  England,  and  therefore 
had  to  submit  without  complaint  to  whatever  Eng- 
land might  choose  to  impose. 

The  government  of  Ireland  was  carried  on  by  a 
lord  lieutenant  or,  in  his  absence,  by  lords  justices,  in 
the  name  of  the  king,  but  actually  during  all  the  period 
1691-1782  under  the  auspices  of  the  parliament  at 
London.  The  lord  lieutenant  was  one  of  the  small 
group  of  powerful  officials  who  made  up  the  English 
cabinet  during  this  period,  and  who  were  taking  away 
the  king's  power.  In  Ireland  he  was  supported  by 
the  armed  forces  of  England,  and  he,  and  the  other 
officials  of  Dublin  Castle  sent  over  from  England, 
were  seldom  controlled  by  any  force  in  Ireland,  but 
always  by  the  English  ministry  and  the  parliament  of 
England.  Often  the  lord  lieutenant  spent  most  of 
his  time  in  England,  coming  to  Ireland  only  when 
parliament  was  held  there,  leaving  things  meanwhile 
to  the  lords  justices,  and  especially  to  one  of  them 
who  managed  things  in  the  English  interests  by  deal- 
ing with  the  "undertakers"  or  great  magnates,  who 
controlled  or  owned  the  greater  part  of  Irish  -parlia- 
mentary representation.  The  chief  business  of  this 
manager  was  to  see  that  money  was  appropriated  by 
the  Irish  Houses,  to  prevent  any  tendency  towards  in- 
dependence from  England,  to  forbid  anything  preju- 
dicial to  English  interests  or  trade,  and  prevent  the 
further  growth  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  The 
most  successful  of  them  was  Archbishop  Boulter,  who 


90  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

was  practically  the  ruler  of  Ireland  from  1724  to 
1742.  His  principal  maxim  was  that  the  most  im- 
portant offices  were  to  be  filled  with  English  ap- 
pointees. Generally  speaking,  the  idea  was  that 
England  should  control  the  Protestants  and  the  Prot- 
estants the  Catholics  in  the  island. 

The  parliament  was  a  shadow.  It  represented  only 
the  Protestant  minority,  and  even  then  it  had  little 
power.  Poynings'  Act  had  long  ago  subordinated  it 
completely  to  the  English  privy  council,  and  in  1719 
the  British  parliament  asserted  its  own  power  to  make 
statutes  binding  on  the  Irish  people.  While  Ireland 
was  thus  under  the  control  of  an  English  parliament 
acting  over  a  subordinate  Irish  parliament,  English 
ministers  did  what  they  pleased.  Pensioners,  mis- 
tresses of  Hanoverian  kings,  politicians  who  must  be 
rewarded,  and  others,  were  quartered  on  the  scanty 
Irish  revenues  until  the  pensions  amounted  to  £89,- 
000.  When  one  thinks  of  the  wretchedness  of  most 
of  the  people  from  whom  after  all  the  revenues  were 
drawn,  there  comes  to  mind  once  more  recollection 
of  that  French  lady  of  the  eighteenth  century  who  had 
a  pension  upon  the  fund  for  the  purchase  of  the  galley- 
slaves'  bread.  The  parliament  at  Dublin  could  do 
little  but  persecute  the  natives  and  dissenters,  and  sel- 
dom was  able  to  protect  any  class  in  Ireland  from 
British  domination.  In  1698  William  Molyneux,  a 
member,  published  his  famous  pamphlet,  in  which  he 
affirmed  the  legislative  independence  of  the  Irish  par- 
liament, saying  that  taxation  without  consent  was 


THE  NADIR  OF  SUBJECTION        91 

little  better  than  robbery,  and  declaring  that  the  free 
people  of  England  ought  to  view  it  with  abhorrence.3 
Nothing  was  accomplished  by  his  writing.  And  the 
character  of  this  Irish  parliament  was  contemptible. 
There  was  abominable  corruption  and  shameless  job- 
bery and  pilfering  of  public  funds.  It  was  indeed  an 
age  when  corruption  was  so  common  in  British  parlia- 
mentary life  that  statesmen  found  themselves  unable 
to  do  without  it.  But  the  testimony  of  Swift  and 
Arthur  Young  and  some  others  seems  to  show  that 
the  Irish  assembly  was  as  dishonest  and  base  as  lack- 
ing in  power  and  dignity,  so  that  afterwards  there 
were  not  wanting  some  who  regarded  the  Act  of 
Union  as  a  blessing,  because  it  relieved  them  of  this 
sham  parliament  at  Dublin. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  ideas  of  liberty  and 
equality  were  not  well  developed.  In  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century  they  had  been  grandly  con- 
ceived and  stated  by  some  of  the  English  revolution- 
aries, but  they  were  not  destined  to  spread  until  they 
had  been  better  worked  out  in  America  and  finely 
formulated  by  the  enlightened  intellect  of  France. 
So  during  all  this  period  of  the  rule  of  Ireland  by 
the  British  parliament,  that  body  which  had  so  nobly 
asserted  its  own  liberties  maintained  in  accord  with 
the  temper  of  the  time  a  tyranny  in  the  neighboring 
island.  Not  only  were  Celtic  Catholics  kept  inferior 
to  Protestant  colonists,  but  Englishmen  in  Ireland 

3  The  Case  of  Ireland's  being  Bound  by  Acts  of  Parliament  of  England 
Stated  (1698). 


92  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

were  kept  inferior  to  their  countrymen  in  England. 
This  was  shown  particularly  in  the  economic  dis- 
crimination which  completely  crushed  the  industry 
and  commerce  of  Ireland.  From  the  time  of  Eliza- 
beth the  commercial  bodies  of  England  waged  re- 
lentless war  on  the  business  and  trade  of  Ireland.  In 
the  sixteenth  century  Irish  beeves  were  sold  in  the 
English  market,  but  this  was  declared  a  nuisance  and 
forbidden  by  law.  Then  salted  provisions  were  sent 
over;  this  was  likewise  stopped,  and  prohibitive  duties 
kept  leather  and  hides  out  of  England.  When  later 
the  sheep  industry  flourished  in  Ireland,  the  importing 
of  Irish  wool  into  England  was  hindered.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  at  this  time  usually  such  things 
were  done  by  one  country  with  respect  to  another, 
but  it  was  especially  hard  in  the  case  of  Ireland,  which 
was  in  these  years  being  forcibly  drawn  closer  to 
England.  In  the  seventeenth  century  the  Irish  tried 
to  manufacture  the  wool  which  they  raised,  many  Eng- 
lish, Scottish,  and  foreign  manufacturers  came  over 
to  work  it,  and  a  thriving  industry  was  established; 
but  in  1699  the  export  from  Ireland  of  manufactured 
woolens  was  entirely  forbidden.  One  result  was  that 
some  20,000  Scotch-Irishmen  left  Ulster  for  Amer- 
ica, and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolutionary  War  Eng- 
land had  no  bitterer  foes  than  their  descendants. 
The  weaving  of  silk  also  had  scarce  been  begun  before 
it  was  ruined.  Only  the  linen  industry,  established 
in  Ulster  with  its  favorable  climate  and  carried  on  by 


THE  NADIR  OF  SUBJECTION        93 

Huguenot  refugees,  was  permitted,  and  even  this  be- 
got jealous  dislike. 

With  industry  deliberately  crushed  out,  commerce 
fared  little  better.  Ireland  has  numerous  harbors 
opening  to  the  west,  which  had  once  favored  com- 
merce with  Gaul  and  Spain,  and  which  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  seemed  to  give  great 
advantage  for  trade  with  America.  About  1680 
Irishmen  competed  successfully  with  Englishmen  in 
European  ports  and  the  French  West  Indies;  but  as 
the  result  of  a  long  series  of  English  Navigation  Acts 
this  was  brought  to  an  end,  until  there  was  left  to 
Ireland  nothing  but  opportunity  for  some  trade  with 
England  and  restricted  trade  with  the  English  col- 
onies. "The  conveniency  of  ports  and  harbours  which 
nature  bestowed  so  liberally  upon  this  kingdom  is  of 
no  more  use  to  us  than  to  a  man  shut  up  in  a  dungeon," 
said  Swift.4 

These  things  were  done  in  a  time  very  different 
from  ours.  In  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  bigotry,  cruelty,  selfishness,  and  despotic 
rule  unenlightened  or  dull,  and  it  must  be  said  that 
at  this  time  many  of  the  people  all  over  Europe  lived 
in  lowly  condition  and  often  misery  too  great  for 
expression.  There  was  in  England  and  Scotland  in 
those  days  much  privilege  of  class,  with  much  eco- 
nomic oppression,  and  the  lower  classes  of  the  people 
there  had  not  yet  come  to  the  days  when  they  could 

*  Quoted  in  The  ABC  Home  Rule  Handbook,  p.  223. 


94  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

make  themselves  heard.  They  too  had  wrongs  for 
redress,  and  they  had  to  wait  for  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries  to  get  that  redress.  And  on  the 
other  hand  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  picture 
was  not  all  and  universally  dark.  There  were  some 
just  landlords,  there  were  some  happy  peasants,  there 
was  some  prosperity  and  joy  of  living,  and  all  through 
this  period  there  was  some  progress  which  can  still 
be  discerned.  Nevertheless,  when  all  allowance  is 
made,  the  condition  of  the  Irish  people  was  inferior, 
miserable,  and  debased ;  Ireland  was  being  treated  by 
England  as  a  conquered  province,  an  inferior  colony, 
a  subordinate  domain;  and  Ireland  in  the  eighteenth 
century  was  administered  by  England  with  much  of 
the  brutal  and  obstinate  tyranny  that  our  free  peo- 
ples feared  from  a  Prussia  triumphant.  It  is  true, 
all  colonies  then  were  held  subject  to  the  will  of  the 
controlling  country,  and  their  inhabitants  debarred 
from  many  privileges  and  rights  which  they  longed 
much  to  have ;  and  Ireland,  if  not  a  colony,  was  con- 
sidered an  outlying  dominion.  In  course  of  time 
Spain  lost  her  colonies  in  South  America  partly  be- 
cause of  this,  and  England  also  some  of  the  best  of 
hers.  It  was  the  particular  misfortune  of  Ireland 
that  she  was  in  such  peculiar  position  that  the  worst 
wrongs  of  old  colonial  administration  fell  upon  her, 
while  she  was  so  near  at  hand  that  she  never  could 
break  away. 


CHAPTER  VI 

GRATTAN'S  PARLIAMENT 

The  subject,  as  a  subject,  is  as  free  in  Ireland  as  he  is  in 
England.  As  a  member  of  the  Empire,  an  Irishman  has 
every  privilege  of  a  natural-born  Englishman,  in  every  oc- 
cupation, and  in  every  branch  of  commerce. 

Edmund  Burke  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hussey,  May  18,  1795. 

ABOUT  1780  there  came  in  the  history  of  Great 
Britain  one  of  those  epochs  when  it  seems  that 
the  doom  of  a  people  and  empire  approaches,  when 
fortune  wanes  and  friends  stay  aloof,  when  enemies 
grow  bold,  and  those  who  once  crouched  are  defiant 
and  bitter.  Woe  to  a  nation  if  then  there  be  wrongs 
not  yet  righted,  or  things  to  be  done  left  undone. 
Such  a  time  found  Ireland  at  the  end  of  a  long  period 
of  abject  and  servile  depression,  longing  for  deliv- 
erance, rejoicing  at  any  calamity  to  the  oppressor, 
resolved  to  extract  from  that  calamity  the  uttermost 
to  its  profit.  In  1914  a  greater  danger  appeared,  a 
more  terrible  doom  was  threatened,  and  then,  Eng- 
land who  had  righted  most  of  the  wrong,  and  largely 
atoned,  found  that  part  of  the  Irish  people  still  re- 
joiced in  the  evil  day,  wishing  well  to  the  German, 
and  forgetting  benefits  new  thought  only  of  ancient 
wrongs  or  a  future  made  in  their  dreams. 

In  1781  England,  militant  and  triumphant  a  short 

95 


96  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

while  before,  was  at  bay,  with  Europe  hostile  or  fight- 
ing against  her,  and  at  the  point  of  losing  the  best 
of  her  colonial  dominions.  Against  a  world  in  arms 
Englishmen  and  Scotchmen  were  fighting  a  hopeless 
fight.  The  Americans,  who  had  rebelled  against  the 
old  colonial  system,  had  not  been  subdued,  Saratoga 
and  Yorktown  had  been  lost,  and  supported  now  by 
France  and  by  Spain,  the  colonists  were  not  to  be 
conquered.  Sweet  was  the  revenge  of  France  and 
Spain,  so  hardly  defeated  a  few  years  before.  Eng- 
lishmen and  their  enemies  might  well  think  that  the 
glories  of  Britain  had  set,  that  the  future  stretched 
darkly  before  them. 

"England's  necessity  is  Ireland's  opportunity," 
has  often  been  uttered  by  Irishmen.  So  it  was  now. 
After  the  Irish  army  had  surrendered  at  Limerick 
and  gone  into  the  service  of  France,  for  almost  a  hun- 
dred years  Ireland  was  prostrate,  and  however  great 
the  wrongs  and  indignities  given  her,  there  had  never 
been  chance  of  successful  resistance.  Now  at  last 
opportunity  had  come.  The  troops  which  had  over- 
awed Ireland  were  withdrawn  for  distant  service. 
Englishmen  were  struggling  against  odds  in  America, 
in  India,  in  the  West  Indies,  fighting  against  Hol- 
land and  France  and  Spain.  Sometimes  they  lost 
command  of  the  sea.  They  could  no  longer  be  de- 
fiant or  lordly.  Bodies  of  Irish  Protestant  troops 
were  organized  to  defend  Ireland  from  danger,  and 
loyal  though  they  were  against  England's  foes,  they 
commanded  respect.  For  the  first  time  in  genera- 


GRATTAN'S  PARLIAMENT  97 

tions  Great  Britain  must  yield  to  Ireland's  desires. 
In  such  a  time  there  are  always  additional  factors. 
The  resistance  of  the  American  colonists  awakened 
something  in  the  Irish  heart.  Taxes  were  increased 
at  the  very  time  when  the  colonial  market  was  closed, 
and  general  discontent  arose  in  the  island.  Most  im- 
portant of  all,  there  now  came  to  strength  what  had 
been  growing  slow  and  in  silence  for  a  generation  or 
more,  a  feeling  of  Irish  nationality — an  ancient  thing 
which  had  often  striven  to  dominate  the  country  in 
days  of  old,  but  always  had  been  thwarted  by  tribal 
disorganization  or  the  undoing  by  the  invader  or  op- 
pressor. During  the  eighteenth  century  England  had 
ruled  easily  by  basing  her  power  upon  force  and  the 
religious  division  in  the  country,  much  as  Austria 
dealt  with  the  Jugo- Slavs  in  our  time;  but  now  there 
was  ever  more  the  feeling  that  Protestants  in  Ireland 
never  could  get  what  they  needed  with  the  Catholic 
majority  enslaved.  The  most  conspicuous  leader  in 
this  development  of  a  united  Irish  nationality  was 
Henry  Grattan,  who  entered  the  Irish  House  of  Com- 
mons in  1775.  He  moved  men  by  his  fervid  patriot- 
ism and  evident  honesty  of  purpose,  and  by  a  splendid 
eloquence  which  Lecky  thinks  was  the  finest  heard 
among  English-speaking  peoples  since  the  time  of  the 
elder  Pitt.  Grattan  desired  to  end  the  feuds  between 
the  colonists  and  the  natives  and  make  them  a  united 
Irish  nation.  Both  England  and  the  colonists  strove 
now  to  win  the  native  Irish,  but  they  threw  in  their 
lot  with  their  colonial  fellow  countrymen,  and  a  united 


98  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

nation  seemed  made.  Irishmen  were  happier  in  1782 
than  in  1914,  when  north  Ireland  would  have  civil  war 
rather  than  Home  Rule  with  the  rest  of  the  island. 
So,  England  began  to  heed  the  protests  of  the  Irish 
political  leaders.  Some  of  the  restrictions  on  trade 
were  soon  removed;  Irish  Protestant  dissenters  were 
freed  from  taking  the  sacramental  test  as  a  condition 
of  holding  office,  something  which  had  often  been 
evaded  in  England  and  Ireland,  but  which  did  debar 
people  of  scrupulous  conscience,  and  continued  to  de- 
bar them  in  England  for  a  half  century  longer;  and 
after  a  while  concessions  were  made  to  the  Catholics. 
In  1779  there  were  about  40,000  volunteers  in 
arms,  commanded  by  the  Irish  aristocracy.  There 
were  bold  words  and  great  demonstrations.  In  1780 
Grattan  moved  that  the  king  and  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment were  the  only  power  competent  to  make  laws 
for  Ireland.  By  the  beginning  of  1782  the  war  had 
been  finally  lost  in  America,  Lord  North's  ministry 
fell,  and  in  May  of  that  year  the  new  ministry  re- 
moved the  restrictions  once  put  on  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment. Early  in  1783  a  law  was  passed  which  declared 
that  forever  thereafter  the  Irish  people  should  be 
bound  only  by  laws  passed  by  the  king  and  the  parlia- 
ment of  Ireland.  "Ireland  is  a  nation,"  cried  Grat- 
tan. "Esto  perpetua"  l  This  is  the  great  event  to 
which  Irishmen  of  later  generations  fondly  looked 
back.  Until  recently  it  was  something  like  this  ar- 
rangement that  most  of  them  wanted  restored. 

i  Sullivan,  p.  91. 


GRATTAN'S  PARLIAMENT  99 

At  first  England's  action  seemed  to  have  produced 
all  the  good  effects  which  advocates  recently  predicted 
for  Home  Rule.  A  great  wave  of  emotion  swept  old 
hostility  away.  Grattan  himself  said  that  next  to  the 
liberty  of  the  country  he  desired  above  all  things  "not 
to  accustom  the  Irish  mind  to  an  alien  or  suspicious 
habit  with  regard  to  Great  Britain."  2  The  first  thing 
which  the  independent  Irish  parliament  did  was  to 
vote  20,000  sailors  for  the  British  navy.  On  the  other 
hand,  some  of  the  best  Englishmen  wished  Ireland 
now  to  be  regulated  by  Irish  notions  in  Irish  interests, 
feeling  that  the  more  this  was  so  the  more  would  she 
really  be  bound  to  Great  Britain. 

Some  excellent  work  was  accomplished.  Most  of 
the  penal  code  against  Roman  Catholics  was  swept 
away,  and  they  were  admitted  to  the  franchise,  though 
not  allowed  to  have  seats  in  the  parliament.  Freedom 
of  trade  had  been  secured,  and  Irish  commerce  began 
to  flourish,  industry  to  revive,  and  the  fisheries  to  at- 
tain great  prosperity.  In  the  days  of  woe  soon  to 
come  men  looked  upon  this  era  as  a  fortunate  age ;  but 
it  has  been  said  that  the  prosperity  which  arose  was 
after  all  fictitious  and  not  shared  by  the  mass  of  the 
people,  since  it  was  due  mostly  to  temporary  condi- 
tions, redounding  to  the  benefit  of  a  few.  During  all 
this  period  of  legislative  independence  England  was 
at  war  or  preparing  for  war;  she  needed  great  sup- 
plies for  her  armies  and  fleets,  which  were  easily 

2W.  E.  H.  Lecky,  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland  (London, 
J903),  i,  ,104. 


100          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

produced  in  Ireland,  predominantly  agricultural,  and 
obtained  in  Irish  ports.  Hence  there  was  a  war  pros- 
perity and  great  war  profits,  like  those  which  recently 
enriched  certain  classes  in  Norway  and  the  United 
States.  However  this  be,  and  there  is  difference  of 
opinion,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  Ireland  in  the 
period  1782-1800  was  better  off  than  before,  and  for 
some  time  thereafter,  if  not  because  she  was  gov- 
erned by  a  parliament  of  her  own,  at  least  because  she 
was  no  longer  under  the  civil  and  commercial  restric- 
tions which  characterized  the  worst  years  of  English 
rule. 

Still  there  was  much  which  Ireland  had  not  yet  ob- 
tained, and  it  was  very  difficult  to  succeed  with  the 
evils  existing.  In  Great  Britain  then  the  ministry, 
or  executive,  was  not  responsible  to  the  people,  but 
it  was  largely  dependent  upon  parliament,  little  as 
that  parliament  represented  the  people.  For  Ireland 
there  was  no  executive  responsible  to  the  Irish  par- 
liament, for  the  lord  lieutenant  and  his  chief  secre- 
tary were  appointed,  as  is  the  case  yet,  by  the  British 
government,  so  that  no  cabinet  fell  when  an  Irish 
majority  was  wanting,  and  really  important  executive 
measures  depended  upon  the  British  cabinet  working 
in  secret  at  a  distance.  Furthermore,  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment continued  to  be  the  corrupt  and  unrepresenta- 
tive body  which  long  it  had  been.  In  Great  Britain 
parliament,  based  largely  upon  small  corporations, 
and  pocket  and  rotten  boroughs,  and  controlled  so 
easily  by  a  few  wealthy  and  powerful  magnates,  was 


GRATTAN'S  PARLIAMENT          101 

greatly  in  need  of  reform;  and  it  should  be  noted 
that  much  as  English  reformers  were  striving  to 
bring  about  betterment,  practically  nothing  was  se- 
cured in  Great  Britain  until  1832,  and  no  funda- 
mental change  until  more  than  thirty  years  later. 
Ireland  at  this  time  had  likewise  the  old,  corrupt  sys- 
tem which  existed  all  through  the  British  Isles.  Out 
of  300  members  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  216 
sat  for  boroughs  or  manors,  most  of  which  were  easily 
controlled  by  wealthy  magnates  or  persons  connected 
with  the  government  in  Dublin  Castle;  so  that  the 
Castle  could  as  a  rule  control  the  proceedings  of  the 
House.  This  control  was  exercised  by  the  important 
English  officials  and  their  Irish  connections;  and  as 
officials  are  in  effect  usually  controlled  by  an  inner 
group  of  powerful  members,  so  the  Castle  was  domi- 
nated by  a  very  small  body  known  as  the  Junto,  of 
whom  Fitzgibbon,  lord  chancellor,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Clare,  was  now  the  most  influential.  Thus  Ireland 
was  easily  ruled  through  its  parliament  by  the  English 
government  and  managed  by  the  powerful  members 
of  the  Junto. 

Formerly  this  parliament  had  represented  in  some 
manner  only  the  Protestant  minority,  having  no  con- 
nection whatever  with  three-fourths  of  the  people. 
In  1793  Catholics  were  permitted  to  vote  for  mem- 
bers, but  they  might  not  represent  their  fellows  by 
sitting  in  the  House.  Catholics,  who  had  assisted, 
so  far  as  they  were  allowed,  in  obtaining  the  conces- 
sions just  granted  by  England,  now  began  agitation 


102    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

to  be  admitted  to  the  government.  Some  English  of- 
ficials favored  their  cause,  and  some  Protestant  cor- 
porations in  Ireland  supported  their  petition.  The 
viceroy  favored  their  complete  emancipation,  but 
nothing  was  done.  It  would  seem  that  most  of  the 
Protestants  strongly  opposed  admitting  Roman  Cath- 
olics to  sit  in  parliament,  since  Catholics,  the  great 
majority  of  the  nation,  if  enfranchised,  might  soon 
give  control  of  the  government  to  members  of  their 
own  faith.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  Ulster 
Protestants  feared  Home  Rule  in  1914;  and  it  will 
be  recalled  that  objection  about  numbers  was  made  to 
admitting  women  to  the  parliamentary  franchise  in 
Great  Britain.  Furthermore,  there  was  nothing  more 
dreaded  by  some  of  those  in  power  than  liberal  treat- 
ment of  Catholics,  by  which  they  might  become  thor- 
oughly contented  and  work  loyally  with  the  Protes 
tants,  so  that  the  Irish  people  might  present  a  solid 
front  to  the  Irish  oligarchy  and  the  British  govern- 
ment. 

Troublous  times  had  come  after  1789.  The  French 
Revolution  began  with  grand  and  generous  reforms 
and  wild  and  radical  proposals.  Its  effects  were  felt 
in  western  and  central  Europe,  where  mighty  changes 
soon  took  place,  in  far-off  America,  where  youthful 
enthusiasm  rose,  and  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
where  the  lowly  and  discontented  began  to  believe 
in  some  vague  way  that  the  time  of  deliverance  was 
come.  What  distrust  and  alarm  these  stirrings  caused 


GRATTAN'S  PARLIAMENT          103 

in  the  minds  of  the  just  but  conservative  everywhere, 
we  can  understand  better  now,  after  the  rule  of  the 
Bolsheviki  in  Russia.  In  Ireland  there  was  still  dis- 
content enough.  Grattan's  period  had  given  some 
industrial  and  commercial  prosperity,  and  a  sense  of 
freedom  and  hope  for  the  future,  but  the  condition  of 
the  mass  of  the  people  had  not  been  greatly  changed. 
Still  they  groaned  under  rackrents,  and  under  greedy 
middlemen  and  landlords.  For  them  violence  might 
bring  something  better.  At  first  the  theories  and 
principles  of  the  French  radicals  affected  not  the  Ro- 
man Catholics  but  the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster,  who 
liked  a  republic  better  than  monarchy;  but  presently 
most  Catholics  were  attracted  also  by  hope  of  relief 
from  economic  oppression  and  old  discrimination.  In 
1791  Wolf  Tone,  a  Dublin  barrister,  founded  the 
Society  of  United  Irishmen,  in  which  he  brought  to- 
gether Protestants  and  Catholics  to  get  reform  by 
remaking  the  Irish  parliament  and  getting  greater 
freedom  from  English  control.  The  result  was  a  split 
in  the  Catholic  ranks,  between  the  educated  upper 
classes,  who  would  get  their  relief  from  England,  and 
the  more  ignorant  and  radical  majority,  who  would 
force  it  themselves. 

In  1795,  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  a  liberal  Whig,  was  sent 
to  Ireland  as  lord  lieutenant.  He  at  once  took  de- 
cided steps  toward  reform,  and  encouraged  Grattan 
to  introduce  a  bill  to  admit  Roman  Catholics  to  par- 
liament. But  the  Junto  soon  secured  his  recall;  and 


104    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  disappointment  and  bitterness  resulting,  and  the 
baseness  and  harsh  brutality  of  some  of  the  reaction- 
ary officials,  led  straight  to  rebellion. 

The  Irish  population,  unhappily  divided  in  so  many 
ways,  now  divided  again  on  distinctly  religious  lines. 
The  Catholics,  embittered  and  goaded  into  violence, 
saw  the  northern  Protestants  desert  them  and  found 
the  Orange  Society.  The  United  Irishmen,  forced 
to  disband,  reappeared  with  intentions  treasonable  to 
the  British  government,  and  sought  for  the  aid  of 
France.  Two  French  expeditions  went  forth,  but 
accomplished  nothing,  largely  because  of  British  com- 
mand of  the  sea.  In  1797,  martial  law  was  pro- 
claimed, and  the  treatment  of  Catholics  was  so  bar- 
barous that  one  may  say  that  they  seemed  to  be  goaded 
into  violent  uprising.  The  general  rebellion,  which 
broke  out  in  1798,  was  generally  a  failure  from  the 
first;  and  after  savage  violence  and  more  savage  re- 
prisals, it  was  soon  completely  stamped  out.  There 
was  a  reactionary  reign  of  terror  in  Ireland,  as  in 
Paris  after  the  Revolution  of  1848.  Horrible  deeds 
of  killing  and  torture  followed.  These  were  the  days 
when  caps  filled  with  burning  pitch  were  put  down 
upon  the  heads  of  unhappy  wretches.  "The  horror 
of  death  lay  over  Ireland ;  cruelty  and  terror  raised  to 
a  frenzy."  3 

Such  was  the  far-famed  period  of  Irish  legislative 
independence.  So  much  that  was  good  seemed  ac- 
complished that  afterwards  these  years  were  cherished 

3  Mrs.  Green,  p.  219. 


GRATTAN'S  PARLIAMENT          105 

by  the  Irish  as  a  golden  age.  Yet  this  time  was  one 
of  much  trouble,  and  at  last  of  entire  disaster.  The 
failure  was  owing  partly  to  evil  conditions  not  yet 
done  away  with,  partly  to  the  difficulty  of  getting  all 
classes  of  Irishmen  to  work  for  their  country  to- 
gether, and  partly  because  the  dangerous  interna- 
tional situation  caused  Englishmen  to  see  with  dis- 
may any  weakening  of  the  ties  between  Ireland  and 
Britain,  particularly  the  increasing  tendency  of  Irish 
extremists  to  bring  about  complete  separation.  Na- 
poleon had  conquered  half  Europe;  the  conquest  of 
the  British  Isles  was  one  of  his  principal  designs  for 
the  future.  Already  the  French  had  twice  gone  to 
Ireland,  and  an  invasion  of  England  was  soon  to  be 
expected.  In  this  crisis,  English  statesmen,  confront- 
ing division  and  hostility  in  Ireland  at  the  same  time 
that  they  were  occupied  with  danger  from  abroad,  re- 
solved to  bind  Ireland  to  England  more  closely  than 
ever  before;  so  closely  that  if  possible  there  might  in 
the  future  be  actual  union  of  all  the  parts  of  the  Brit- 
ish Isles. 


I  hope  I  feel  as  becomes  a  true  Irishman  for  the  dignity  and 
independence  of  my  country,  and  therefore  I  would  elevate 
her  to  her  proper  station  in  the  rank  of  civilised  nations.  I 
wish  to  advance  her  from  the  degraded  post  of  a  mercenary 
province  to  the  proud  station  of  an  integral  and  governing 
member  of  the  greatest  empire  in  the  world. 

Speech  of  John,  Earl  of  Clare,  in  the  House  of 
Lords  of  Ireland,  February  10,  1800. 

That  Union,  so  called,  as  lucus  a  non  lucendo,  a  union 
from  never  uniting,  which  in  its  first  operation  gave  a  death- 
blow to  the  independence  of  Ireland,  and  in  its  last  may  be 
the  cause  of  her  eternal  separation  from  this  countr}r.     If  it 
must  be  called  a  Union,  it  is  the  union  of  the  shark  with  his 
prey ;  the  spoiler  swallows  up  his  victim,  and  they  become  one 
and  inseparable.     Thus  has  Great  Britain  swallowed  up  the 
Parliament,  the  Constitution,  the  independence  of  Ireland. 
Lord  Byron  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  April  21,  1812. 

THE  union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  followed 
the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  of  1798.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  history  of  the 
Irish  people,  and  the  one  which  has,  perhaps,  been 
more  denounced  and  obscured  by  their  patriotic 
writers  than  anything  else.  So  much  has  been  writ- 
ten about  it  in  controversial  passion,  that  now  it  often 

106 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     107 

seems  hopeless  to  try  to  arrive  at  a  fair  understand- 
ing. 

The  history  of  the  principal  divisions  of  the  British 
Isles  is  in  large  part  the  record  of  a  gradual  assem- 
bling about  England  in  closer  union;  and  generally, 
it  may  be  said,  this  has  been  advantageous  to  all  the 
parts.  Wales  was  incorporated  into  England  dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages,  and  formally  the  work  was  com- 
pleted in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  The  conquest 
of  Scotland  was  attempted  by  Edward  I,  who  con- 
quered Wales,  but  the  Scots  developed  a  stronger 
sense  of  nationality,  before  their  kinsmen  in  Ireland, 
and  so  were  able  to  maintain  an  independence  upon 
which  Scotchmen  nowadays  look  back  with  pride,  but 
which  actually  rendered  the  Scots  and  the  people  of 
northern  England  far  less  happy  and  fortunate  than 
would  probably  have  been  the  case  if  an  honor- 
able union  had  been  established.  Certainly  some 
hundred  years  of  barbarous  border  warfare  would 
have  been  avoided,  and  all  the  country  from  Durham 
to  Aberdeen  blessed  with  an  order  and  prosperity 
which  came  very  late.  In  1603  a  union  of  Scotland 
with  England  was  partly  accomplished,  when  the  two 
kingdoms  were  brought  together  under  James  I. 
They  were  to  have  the  same  king,  but  separate  coun- 
cils, parliaments,  and  governmental  organizations. 
A  closer  union  was  often  desired  by  the  progressive 
people  in  both  countries,  but  national  pride  and  local 
prejudice  made  this  impossible  for  another  hundred 
years.  In  1707,  after  a  bitter  struggle,  in  the  course 


108    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  which  many  patriotic  Scots  and  Englishmen  felt 
that  the  interests  of  their  lands  were  being  ruined  and 
betrayed,  England  and  Scotland  were  joined  by  an 
act  of  union  in  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  and 
after  a  generation  had  passed  in  which  the  irrecon- 
cilable opponents  disappeared,  most  persons  saw  that 
England  and  Scotland  now  conferred  upon  each 
other  great  benefits  and  great  prosperity  and  happi- 
ness. If  there  was  some  inequality,  the  benefits  were 
possessed  by  Scotland. 

To  bring  about  a  closer  union  with  Ireland  was 
more  difficult  and  less  desired  by  England.  Crom- 
well did  assemble  representatives  from  Ireland  in  his 
parliaments,  as  he  brought  them  also  from  Scotland, 
but  with  his  death  this  union  came  to  an  end.  When 
Scotland  and  England  were  at  last  being  united, 
there  were  not  wanting  Irishmen  who  wished  that  the 
same  might  be  done  in  respect  of  their  country,  and 
the  Irish  Houses  of  Parliament  sent  petitions  to  Lon- 
don for  it  in  1703  and  1707.  Had  England  granted 
it  as  this  time,  doubtless  Ireland  with  equal  laws  and 
trading  privileges  would  have  gone  towards  a  happier 
future.  During  the  eighteenth  century  eminent 
writers  like  Sir  William  Petty  and  Adam  Smith  ad- 
verted to  the  advantages  of  such  union. 

When  the  rebellion  of  1798  was  ended,  the  younger 
Pitt,  who  headed  the  British  government  then,  was 
confronted  with  problems  much  greater  than  those 
concerning  Ireland  alone.  One  of  the  things  to  be 
noticed  by  the  student  of  Irish  history  is  the  narrow 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     109 

views  of  a  great  many  of  its  writers.  Recently  ad- 
vocates of  the  immediate  granting  of  Home  Rule  to 
Ireland,  or  those  who  speak  so  loudly  in  behalf  of 
complete  independence  for  Ireland,  have  seemed  to 
take  into  consideration  nothing  but  the  affairs  of  Ire- 
land alone,  and  seemed  to  care  little  for  the  effects 
upon  England  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  To  them  it 
has  been  more  important  that  Ireland  immediately  get 
what  they  thought  she  should  have  than  that  the  war 
against  Germany  be  won  or  any  of  the  delicate  and 
complicated  things  which  concern  the  position  and  re- 
lations of  other  peoples  be  taken  in  mind.  So  the 
Nationalist  and  Sinn  Fein  writers  who  tell  the  story 
of  the  union  of  Ireland  with  England,  expatiate  with 
horror  upon  the  fraud  and  corruption  and  violence 
which  brought  it  about,  without  intelligent  study  of 
the  conditions  which  prevailed  then,  and  tell  the  story 
solely  with  reference  to  Ireland,  recking  little,  it 
would  seem,  that  then  also  England  was  locked  in 
struggle  with  one  of  the  mightiest  of  her  foes,  fight- 
ing one  of  the  most  difficult  struggles  which  ever  she 
waged.  Irishmen,  justly  discontented,  were  inviting 
Frenchmen  to  invade  their  island,  as  in  1914  some 
others  sought  assistance  from  Germans.  Then  as 
now  a  hostile  Ireland  giving  base  for  the  enemy's 
flank  attack  might  have  been  fatal.  As  in  the  days  of 
Elizabeth,  so  in  the  administration  of  Pitt,  it  was  a 
vital  interest  of  England  to  make  sure  of  Ireland. 

There   were   other  considerations.     Under   Grat- 
tan's  Parliament  the  aspirations  of  many  Irishmen 


110    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

had  been  very  fine,  and  they  had  struggled  manfully 
against  fatal  and  evil  conditions  of  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  were  placed.  It  is  true  also  that  re- 
actionaries both  in  England  and  in  Ireland  had  tried 
to  make  them  fail.  The  fact  was,  however,  that  Ire- 
land under  her  own  parliament  had  not  achieved 
union  of  the  peoples  or  solution  of  the  problems  that 
vexed  them.  Had  there  been  no  international 
dangers,  and  if  the  best  men  of  Ireland  had  had  a 
longer  time  and  a  fairer  chance,  perhaps  all  of  these 
difficulties  would  have  been  removed  in  the  end.  But 
while  the  ardent  and  discontented  now  may  describe 
merely  the  iniquity  of  wrongs  in  the  past,  statesmen 
at  the  time  had  to  deal  with  things  as  they  were. 
Pitt  viewed  the  great  danger  of  an  Ireland  discon- 
tented and  not  closely  held  while  England  was  fight- 
ing for  her  life;  he  saw  the  necessity  of  redressing 
grievances  which  could  not  be  removed  under  the  cir- 
cumstances existing;  he  saw  the  necessity  of  admit- 
ting the  Roman  Catholics  to  a  share  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  reluctance  of  the  Protestant  minority 
to  yield  up  control.  He  thought,  and  other  good 
men  in  Ireland  as  well  as  in  England  thought,  that 
these  difficulties  might  best  be  removed  by  merging 
Ireland  into  a  greater  union  with  Great  Britain,  as 
Scotland  had  formerly  been  joined  with  England. 
This  he  undertook  to  accomplish. 

It  is  true  that  much  of  the  opinion  in  Ireland  was 
strongly  against  such  a  union.  There  was  a  great 
deal  of  well-deserved  hatred  of  England;  there  was 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     111 

strong  and  increasing  consciousness  of  Irish  nation- 
ality, as  once  there  had  been  in  Scotland;  and  the 
spirit  of  the  French  Revolution  with  its  rights  of 
man  and  aspirations  of  peoples  had  some  effect. 
Furthermore,  the  existing  Irish  government,  which 
had  done  very  little  for  Ireland,  had  much  to  lose  by 
the  change.  Hence  the  Union  was  carried  in  Ire- 
land largely  by  intimidation  and  coercive  persuasion; 
and  in  the  Irish  parliament  by  bribery  wholesale  and 
open.  But  it  is  scarcely  true  to  say,  as  is  often  said 
now,  that  the  members  of  the  Irish  parliament  were 
bribed  by  Pitt  to  sell  their  countrymen's  trust.  For 
no  really  representative  assembly  sold  what  had  been 
entrusted  to  it  by  the  people.  At  that  time  both  in 
England  and  Ireland  those  who  controlled  parliamen- 
tary boroughs  thought  that  they  owned,  and  were 
thought  to  possess,  a  property  to  be  bought  and  sold. 
The  principle  of  compensating  owners  of  boroughs 
was  recognized  in  England  in  1785  when  Pitt  pro- 
posed to  reform  the  parliamentary  system  there.  In 
Ireland  this  was  done  now,  and  such  compensation, 
together  with  titles,  presents,  cajolery,  and  threats, 
procured  for  the  British  authorities  a  majority  in  the 
Irish  parliament  for  the  Union.  It  may  be  that  this 
was,  as  Lecky  thought,  against  the  wishes  of  five- 
sixths  of  the  people  of  Ireland.  But  most  popular 
writers  treat  of  the  matter  in  terms  of  legislative  con- 
ditions at  present.  It  should  be  remembered,  as 
Lecky  also  said,  that  without  bribery,  pressure,  and 
persuasion  not  only  the  Union  could  not  have  been 


112          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

carried,  but  no  real  reform  of  the  Irish  parliament, 
which  the  best  Irishmen  then  earnestly  wished  for. 

Irishmen  may  properly  regret  the  taking  away 
of  their  legislative  independence,  and  one  may  justly 
sympathize  with  their  indignation  and  regret;  but  it 
is  fair  to  explain  that  what  was  done  away  with  by 
force  and  corruption  was  a  corrupt  and  ineffective 
thing;  and  that  if  it  was  done  with  consideration  of 
England's  welfare  foremost  in  mind,  there  were  ex- 
cellent reasons  for  believing  that  it  would  produce 
benefits  and  reforms  much  needed  in  Ireland;  and 
that  far  from  being  an  act  of  brutal  tyranny  by  Great 
Britain,  it  was  considered  by  some  wise  men  in  Ire- 
land as  well  as  in  England  to  be  best  under  the  cir- 
cumstances for  the  interests  of  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

By  the  terms  of  the  Act  of  Union  of  1800  the  par- 
liaments of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  were  united, 
32  Irish  peers  sitting  in  the  House  of  Lords  at  West- 
minster and  100  Irish  members  coming  to  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  United  Church  of  England  and 
Ireland  was  to  be  a  fundamental  part  of  the  new 
system.  The  name  of  the  new  state  was  to  be  the 
United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
Some  one  commented  upon  the  fact  that  a  common 
legislature  had  been  formed,  but  no  common  name 
had  been  found,  as  was  easily  done  for  Eng- 
land and  Scotland;  and  Irish  writers  have  seen  in 
this  the  symbol  of  the  unreal  arrangement  accom- 
plished. Englishmen  fondly  believed  that  by  this 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     113 

scheme  they  had  settled  the  most  vexatious  problem 
which  perplexed  them ;  but  in  the  next  hundred  years 
there  was  to  be  much  more  violent  opposition,  with 
constant  efforts  at  last  to  annul  this  Union. 

With  Ireland  subdued  and  held  by  armed  forces 
conditions  were  such  that  there  could  not  be  the  bitter 
and  open  resistance  to  the  new  government  which 
Scottish  malcontents  so  long  preserved.  Some  may 
recall  that  in  1713  a  motion  was  made  in  the  British 
parliament  to  dissolve  the  union  between  England 
and  Scotland;  and  the  Highlands  were  not  won  over 
entirely  until  after  the  measures  following  the  sup- 
pression of  the  Rebellion  of  1745.  But  the  circum- 
stances and  terms  of  the  union  of  England  and  Scot- 
land were  such  that  only  the  operation  of  time  was 
necessary  to  reconcile  the  vast  majority  in  both  coun- 
tries, and  great  economic  advantages  counterbalanced 
the  sacrifice  of  Scottish  nationality.  Unhappily  in 
Ireland  a  great  many  of  the  reforms  which  were 
needed,  and  some  of  the  most  important  things  prom- 
ised, were  neither  attended  to  nor  fulfilled  for  a  long 
time  afterward,  while  circumstances  were  such  that 
there  was  rather  a  decline  than  an  increase  of  pros- 
perity. English  statesmen  were  either  stupid  or  un- 
fortunate, and  the  passage  of  years  bringing  reforms 
slow  and  by  grudging  gift  after  bitterness  and  ex- 
treme resistance,  did  not  cause  England  and  Ireland 
to  come  closer  together,  but  made  Ireland  desire  to 
break  the  tie  upon  her,  and  always  look  back  with 
vain  regret  to  the  years  of  legislative  independence. 


114    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

The  population  of  Ireland  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  was  about  4,500,000.  Catholics 
made  up,  apparently,  nearly  four-fifths  of  this  num- 
ber. The  enfranchising  act  of  1793  had  admitted 
Roman  Catholics  to  vote  and  allowed  them  to  hold 
lesser  offices,  but  they  might  not  be  elected  to  parlia- 
ment nor  hold  the  higher  civil  and  judicial  positions. 
At  the  time  when  the  Union  was  being  forced  through 
some  of  the  Roman  Catholics  were  won  over  by  as- 
surances that  when  the  change  was  made  they  would 
obtain  state  payment  for  their  priests,  commutation 
of  tithes,  and,  above  all,  complete  political  emancipa- 
tion. Pitt  made  no  formal  promise  to  this  effect, 
but  seems  to  have  sincerely  desired  to  carry  these 
things.  It  happened,  however,  that  George  III  was 
obstinately  and  unyieldingly  an  enemy  to  concessions 
to  Catholics,  and  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  he 
would  reckon  any  man  his  personal  enemy  who  pro- 
posed a  measure  for  Catholic  relief.  In  the  midst  of 
conflicting  circumstances,  Pitt  yielded  for  what 
seemed  to  him  the  best.  This  was  in  1801.  For  the 
next  decade  the  giant  struggle  with  Napoleon  ab- 
sorbed the  attention  of  Englishmen,  and  after  Water- 
loo came  a  period  of  reaction,  during  which  the  hopes 
of  progressives  in  England  as  well  as  Ireland  were 
crushed  to  the  earth.  So,  nothing  was  done  for  Irish 
Catholics  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  nothing  was 
done  to  win  Ireland  to  closer  fellowship  and  associa- 
tion. 


Other  conditions  remained  very  bad.  Worst  of  all 
was  the  question  of  land.  Most  Englishmen,  to  do 
them  justice,  little  knew  how  different  was  the  ar- 
rangement in  Ireland  from  theirs,  or  how  bad  it  was. 
In  England  the  landlord  was  a  partner,  as  it  were,  in 
the  agricultural  enterprise,  investing  his  capital  and 
making  improvements,  and  he  was  close  to  the  tenant 
through  social  and  customary  ties.  In  Ireland  he  was 
like  the  owners  of  land  in  London:  simply  a  receiver 
of  rent.  Irish  landlords  were  not  all  bad,  but  the 
system  was  exceedingly  bad.  Many  of  them  were 
absentees,  and  in  any  case  the  larger  part  of  the  land 
was  usually  let  on  long  lease  to  middlemen,  who  par- 
celled it  out  in  small  holdings  to  peasants  at  extrava- 
gant rent  for  a  year  at  a  time.  Furthermore  the 
value  of  land  was  rising.  The  long  wars  caused  the 
price  of  corn  to  rise  and  with  it  the  price  of  land. 
Hence,  as  leases  fell  in,  rents  were  largely  raised, 
the  lease  being  sometimes  exposed  to  public 
auction,  after  which  the  cottiers  had  to  apply  to  the 
lessee  for  a  tenement  which  was  let  at  extortionate 
rent.  It  may  be  added  that  many  of  these  peasants 
were  obliged  moreover  to  work  for  the  landlord  by 
the  terms  of  their  contracts,  so  that  actually  their  con- 
dition was  not  very  different  from  that  of  the  medi- 
eval serf.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  they  were  further 
hampered  by  vexatious  tolls  in  market  and  town. 
And  finally  there  were  the  tithes  to  be  paid  to  the 
ministers  of  the  Established  Church  of  Ireland. 


116    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

"Tithe,  when  uncommuted,  is  the  worst  of  taxes,  be- 
cause it  is  a  tax  on  industry  as  well  as  on  capital."  * 
It  was  a  share  of  that  which  the  peasant  produced, 
and  the  harder  he  worked  the  more  he  had  to  pay. 
The  great  majority  of  the  population,  whether 
Catholic  or  Presbyterian,  had  to  pay  this  grievous  tax 
to  support  a  religion  which  they  detested  and  which 
did  nothing  for  them. 

They  who  insist  that  the  period  of  Grattan's  Par- 
liament was  one  of  exceptional  prosperity  are  largely 
correct,  for  England  had  already  relaxed  the  com- 
mercial restrictions  put  upon  Ireland;  but  Home 
Rule  advocates  and  recent  Nationalist  writers  are 
less  so  when  they  assert  that  this  prosperity  was  de- 
stroyed by  the  making  of  the  Union.  Something  of 
Ireland's  decline  may  have  been  due  to  it,  though  it 
would  be  difficult  to  give  definite  proof.  Cer- 
tainly the  decline  was  not  seen  for  some  time,  and 
there  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  when  it  did 
come  it  was  due  to  the  operation  of  far-reaching 
causes  which  would  have  been  effective  whether  Ire- 
land had  a  separate  parliament  or  not.  Comparing 
the  decade  just  after  the  Union  with  the  one  just  be- 
fore it,  there  is  seen  to  have  been  an  increase  of  more 
than  fifty  per  cent  in  imports  and  more  than  twenty- 
three  per  cent  in  exports.  In  the  next  half  century 
the  population  grew  as  rapidly  as  anywhere  in 
Europe,  from  four  and  a  half  millions  to  more  than 
eight,  nearly  doubling  itself.  Yet  it  must  be  remem- 

i  J.  H.  Bridges,  in  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History,  p.  215, 


bered  that  while  rapidly  increasing  population  in 
America  and  Germany  has  denoted  increase  in  power 
and  wealth,  it  has  had  very  different  significance  in 
southern  Italy  and  Russia.  One  school  of  writers 
holds  that  this  doubling  of  the  Irish  population  in  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  denotes  prosperity 
and  progress,  another  that  it  signifies  extreme  im- 
providence and  very  low  standard  of  living. 

The  prosperity  of  Ireland  was  actually  on  the  wane, 
from  causes  that  could  not,  perhaps,  be  clearly  seen 
at  the  time,  but  which  can  be  discerned  now.  Irish 
industry  began  to  flourish  again  about  the  time  of  the 
independent  parliament  because  -English  restrictions 
were  removed;  but  after  all  it  was  the  old  indus- 
trial system  which  flourished  once  more,  and  pres- 
ently that  system  was  everywhere  forced  to  yield  to 
a  new  one  which  marked  the  industrial  revolution 
already  well  started  in  England.  Better  means  of 
communication,  and  great  mechanical  inventions  like 
the  steam  engine  and  spinning- jenny  changed  the  in- 
dustry of  the  world.  Manufacturing  became  central- 
ized in  certain  places;  in  other  places  it  gradually 
disappeared.  This  was  so  with  many  a  district  in 
England  and  Scotland,  once  well  known  for  things 
made,  but  which  now  decayed  as  the  woolen  manu- 
facture was  gathered  to  Yorkshire,  cotton  to  Lanca- 
shire, and  linens  to  north  Ireland  about  Belfast. 
Here  was  a  world  movement,  and  it  is  difficult  to  be- 
lieve that  the  form  of  Irish  government  could  have 
much  to  do  with  it.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 


118    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

century,  also,  Irish  agriculture  flourished  exceed- 
ingly, as  it  did  for  some  time  after  the  Union  was 
accomplished;  but  this  was  due  to  the  need  for  food 
in  England  during  the  war,  when  access  to  European 
markets  was  often  cut  off.  After  the  end  of  the  war 
English  agriculture  suffered  as  did  Irish  agriculture 
in  competition  with  corn  from  abroad.  It  may  be 
said  that  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  from 
Dublin  to  Westminster  did  indeed  cause  a  decline  in 
the  prosperity  of  the  Irish  capital  city.  As  in  the 
case  of  Edinburgh,  where  there  had  been  much  gaiety, 
fine  building,  and  luxury,  there  was  now  the  quietness 
of  disuse  and  decay. 

During  this  period  Irish  finances  developed  in  a 
manner  unsatisfactory  to  Irishmen.  By  the  terms  of 
the  Act  of  Union,  England  and  Ireland  were  each 
of  them  to  contribute  a  fixed  proportion  of  the  joint 
public  expenditures:  Britain  was  to  furnish  fifteen 
parts  and  Ireland  two  parts  of  the  total  revenue, 
probably  more  than  Ireland  could  properly  pay.  It 
was  further  provided  that  if  in  the  future  the  public 
debts  of  the  two  countries  should  stand  in  the  same 
proportions,  then  parliament  might  impose  the  same 
rate  of  taxation  in  each  country  and  amalgamate  the 
British  and  the  Irish  exchequers.  At  first  the  Irish 
debt  was  not  large,  but  it  was  soon  evident  that 
two-seventeenths  of  the  revenue  was  more  than  the 
island  could  furnish,  _and  the  annual  deficits  had  to 
be  made  good  by  loans  which  caused  the  Irish  debt 
rapidly  to  increase.  In  1800  it  had  been  about  one- 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     119 

sixteenth  of  the  British  debt,  but  in  1816  it  was  be- 
tween one-sixth  and  one-seventh.  Next  year  the  con- 
solidation of  the  exchequers  was  effected.  The  gen- 
eral result  of  this  and  of  the  conditions  which  pro- 
duced it  was  that  Ireland  was  burdened  with  heavier 
taxes,  at  a  time  when  other  circumstances  made  the 
people  less  able  to  pay  them.  One  of  the  complaints 
constantly  made  in  recent  Irish  propagandist  litera- 
ture is  that  a  poor  Ireland  has  throughout  the  nine- 
teenth century  been  drained  of  money  to  pay  taxes 
to  a  wealthier  Britain.  There  is  much  to  be  said 
on  both  sides  of  this  difficult  question,  and  appar- 
ently the  condition  has  not  existed  for  some  time, 
but  Ireland  does  seem  in  this  to  have  suffered  dis- 
advantages from  which  a  government  of  her  own 
would  at  least  have  attempted  to  save  her. 

In  the  midst  of  these  changing  conditions,  with 
Ireland  silent,  subdued  and  ever  drifting  toward 
lower  depression  and  economic  suffering,  other  forces 
of  discontent  were  unloosed.  At  first  they  were 
scarcely  noticed.  The  rebellion  of  Robert  Emmet 
in  1803  was  the  pathetic  act  of  a  young  republican 
visionary,  inspired  with  the  hope  of  rekindling  Irish 
nationality.  For  his  immediate  failure  he  paid  with 
his  life,  and  like  Padraic  Pearse,  another  one  great  of 
soul  and  of  kindred  spirit  a  hundred  years  later,  he 
died  an  enthusiast  and  pure-minded  martyr.  But 
against  the  worst  oppressions  lawlessness  has  ever 
broken  out  in  Ireland.  When  the  condition  of  the 
Irish  people  has  been  most  hopeless,  secret  local 


120    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

organizations  have  always  risen  up  to  redress  in  their 
rude,  savage  way  the  wrongs  which  could  not  other- 
wise be  opposed.  In  the  seventeenth  century  there 
were  the  Whiteboys  and  the  Oak  and  Steel  Boys, 
about  whom  ghastly  things  are  related.  In  the  early 
nineteenth  century  new  ones  arose  with  different 
names.  Some  deeds  committed  were  atrocious,  and 
savage  retribution  was  taken.  But  it  should  be  said 
that  they  who  declare  Irishmen  to  be  naturally  with- 
out sense  of  obedience  to  law,  should  remember  that 
terrible  wrongs,  whether  in  Italy  or  Russia  or  the 
southern  United  States  under  reconstruction,  or  in 
Ireland,  have  always  produced  secret  organizations, 
with  violence,  intimidation,  and  disorder,  and  that 
often  these  things  have  in  desperate  need  been  the 
last  recourse  of  a  people.  During  this  time  Ireland 
was  held  down  by  armed  forces,  and  ruled  under  acts 
of  coercion.  Yet  the  violence  and  disorder  continued, 
particularly  against  unfair  landlords  and  collectors 
of  tithes,  until  they  gradually  became,  what  they  had 
often  been  before,  a  source  of  grave  disquietude  to 
the  British  government,  and  also  until  they  became 
for  the  first  time,  perhaps,  disquieting  to  the  people  of 
England. 

The  greatest  movement  in  Ireland  at  this  time 
was  the  struggle  of  Roman  Catholics  for  deliverance. 
With  Daniel  O'Connell's  name  this  movement  is  for- 
ever associated.  He  was  a  Catholic  barrister,  an 
ardent  Irish  patriot,  eloquent  and  gay,  with  great  art 
in  winning  his  countrymen  to  follow  him,  and  with 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     121 

marvellous  talents  for  organization.  He  took  up  the 
cause  of  his  fellow  Catholics  when  Pitt  had  abandoned 
it,  and  when  Fox  had  accomplished  nothing;  and  he 
began  his  task  when  almost  everyone  else  had  given 
it  up  in  despair.  For  a  long  while  the  people  of 
England,  who  generally  in  those  days  knew  little  of 
Ireland,  or  of  any  other  land,  scarcely  heard  of  him; 
but  he  was  more  and  more  important  as  a  worker  in 
the  Catholic  cause. 

That  cause  had  made  little  progress.  Some  of  the 
Irish  members  in  parliament,  like  Grattan,  did  what 
they  could,  and  Irish  Catholics  petitioned  for  relief; 
but  though  the  matter  was  several  times  considered, 
greater  things  claimed  the  attention  of  British  states- 
men, and  there  was  an  invincible  prejudice  in  states- 
men and  people.  A  Catholic  Association  had  been 
founded  in  Ireland  in  1806  for  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing relief.  It  was  based  largely  upon  the  support  of 
prosperous  Catholics  of  the  middle  class,  and  it  peti- 
tioned parliament  for  relief.  It  was  connected  with 
local  bodies  of  Catholics  by  devices  which  narrowly 
escaped  violating  the  law.  In  1810  a  Catholic  Com- 
mittee was  established,  and  when  this  was  denounced 
by  the  government  it  was  replaced  by  a  Catholic 
Board.  This  was  also  soon  suppressed.  It  was  in 
these  bodies  that  O'Connell  first  rose  to  influential 
position.  In  1823  the  Catholic  Association  was  re- 
vived, largely  through  the  exertions  of  O'Connell, 
who  gave  it  now  an  entirely  different  character,  and 
through  his  genius  for  organization  speedily  made  it 


122    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

a  very  formidable  weapon.  He  based  it  upon  the 
great  mass  of  the  Catholic  population,  the  lower 
classes,  and  his  agents  in  accomplishing  this  work 
were  the  Irish  priests. 

The  priests  in  Ireland  have  long  had  a  peculiar 
position.  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  as  Lecky 
once  said,  when  every  northern  nation  abandoned  the 
old  faith,  Irishmen  retained  it,  partly,  at  least,  out  of 
antipathy  to  their  oppressors;  and  in  the  struggle 
which  followed  it  was  often  the  symbol  and  expres- 
sion of  their  national  spirit,  and  gave  them  the 
strongest  political  feeling  which  they  had.  In  the 
long  period  of  the  abasement  of  the  Irish,  their  priests 
had  been  the  leaders,  their  only  friends,  their  only 
guides.  And  they  had  suffered  much.  The  penal 
laws  had  fallen  on  them  with  full  weight.  Often 
they  had  been  hunted  through  the  wild  places  of  the 
country;  they  had  been  sheltered  and  hidden  by  the 
peasantry  whom  they  sustained.  The  tie  between 
priests  and  people,  then,  became  wonderous  strong, 
"something  to  which  no  parallel  can  be  found  in  other 
countries,  Protestant  or  Catholic,  for  many  cen- 
turies." Better  times  now  had  come.  The  priest 
was  not  hunted  and  persecuted  as  once  he  had  been, 
but  he  was  still  the  principal  friend  of  the  peasantry, 
with  such  wonderful  influence  as  often  to  be  their 
master. 

Therefore,  when  O'Connell  planned  to  reach  the 
Irish  people,  he  did  it  through  their  leaders  and  guides, 

2  Bridges,  p.  240. 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     123 

and  it  was  the  sign  of  his  genius  for  leadership  in  Ire- 
land that  they  followed  him  obediently,  and  made  it 
possible  for  him  to  perfect  through  them  an  organi- 
zation all  through  the  country.  The  dues  in  the  Asso- 
ciation were  made  as  low  as  a  penny  a  week,  which  was 
to  be  collected  in  each  parish  through  the  priest.  It 
was  no  long  time  before  the  Association  was  receiv- 
ing a  regular  income  of  more  than  a  thousand  pounds 
sterling  a  week,  amply  sufficient  for  its  support  and 
the  carrying  on  of  all  the  propaganda  which  it  under- 
took. Great  mass  meetings  were  held  at  which 
O'Connell  displayed  unrivalled  magnetic  power.  He 
discountenanced  violence :  no  political  change,  he  said, 
was  worth  a  drop  of  human  blood;  and  he  controlled 
his  followers  through  the  priests  in  amazing  fashion. 
Soon  it  was  seen  that  a  real  new  power  had  arisen 
in  the  state,  an  imperium  in  imperio,  which  consti- 
tuted virtually  an  informal  parliament  to  take  cogni- 
zance of  all  things  which  affected  the  Catholic  Irish. 
In  1825  this  and  all  similar  organizations  were  sup- 
pressed, but  the  resourceful  leader  at  once  revived  it 
under  another  form,  and  displayed  great  ingenuity 
in  keeping  just  within  the  bounds  of  the  law. 

The  Catholic  question  now  became  an  acute  issue 
in  England  as  well  as  in  Ireland.  The  majority  of 
the  English  people,  Protestant  and  conservative  in 
temper,  were  opposed  to  enfranchisement  of  Catholics 
and  letting  them  share  in  the  government  of  the  state, 
while  Tories  and  reactionaries  about  court  and  in  the 
House  of  Lords  were  able  to  destroy  one  bill  which 


124    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

passed  through  the  Commons.  In  Ireland  such  pas- 
sions were  aroused  that  there  was  widespread  fear 
of  civil  war,  and  the  fanaticism  of  Catholics  and 
Orangemen  was  so  fanned  to  a  flame  that  it  seemed 
such  a  conflict  might  be  really  a  religious  war.  The 
matter  soon  came  to  issue  in  such  way  as  to  show 
the  British  government  that  something  had  to  be  done : 
in  the  general  election  of  1826  there  was  a  great  re- 
volt of  the  Catholic  voters  from  the  leadership  of 
their  landlords,  that  is  to  say,  against  the  government 
which  supported  the  landlords.  In  Ireland,  as  in 
England,  because  of  an  old  statute,  in  the  country 
districts  or  counties  the  right  of  voting  for  mem- 
bers of  parliament  was  vested  in  the  forty-shilling 
freeholders,  possessors  of  freeholds  with  annual 
value  of  that  amount.  In  England  and  in  Ireland 
the  independent  freeholders  were  few,  but  in  Ireland 
especially  they  might  be  created  without  grant  of 
property,  and  many  such  freeholders  had  been  made 
from  time  to  time  by  the  landlords  on  their  estates 
as  a  means  for  their  political  control  of  the  district. 
It  is  difficult  for  one  not  acquainted  with  the  gradual 
growth  of  the  franchise  to  realize  some  of  the  ideas 
which  once  prevailed  widely,  but  which  have  passed 
away  now,  leaving  small  trace  of  themselves  in  those 
now  existing.  At  present,  dependence  of  a  voter 
upon  some  patron  or  master  is  regarded  as  excep- 
tional or  abhorrent ;  but  it  was  the  usual  thing  in  rural 
districts  long  ago,  and  it  still  continued  as  a  time- 
honored  custom  in  England  and  Ireland  at  the  begin- 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     125 

ning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  "It  was  received  as 
an  almost  unquestioned  axiom  of  agricultural  ethics 
that  the  tenant  must  follow  in  all  political  matters  the 
lead  of  his  landlord."  3  The  relation  between  tenant 
and  landlord  in  this  respect  was  something  like  that 
of  the  follower  to  the  chief.  Now  in  Ireland  for  the 
most  part  the  forty-shilling  freeholders  were  the  most 
ignorant  and  impoverished  Catholic  farmers.  It  was 
one  of  the  unfortunate  results  of  the  enfranchisement 
act  of  1793  that  they  had  been  allowed  to  vote  while 
the  enlightened  Catholic  gentry  were  debarred  from 
sitting  in  parliament.  Hitherto  these  new  voters 
had  been  altogether  subservient  to  their  landlords' 
wishes,  expressing  no  political  convictions  of  their 
own;  but  now  O'Connell  ruled  the  clergy,  and  as  al- 
ways the  clergy  ruled  the  people.  They  so  wrought 
upon  their  parishioners  that  a  sudden  overturn  fol- 
lowed. Sermons  were  preached  that  the  salvation  of 
the  voters  was  at  stake;  and  eloquent  leaders  stirred 
them  to  a  frenzy.  Violence  and  intimidation  were 
employed  against  the  Association's  opponents. 
Protestants  were  forced  to  vote  with  the  organization 
by  threats  of  assassination  and  burning  of  their  homes. 
The  result  of  it  all  was  that  the  Association  gained  a 
great  triumph.  And  the  result  also  was  that  some 
English  leaders,  particularly  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
saw  that  if  civil  war  was  to  be  averted,  the  govern- 
ment must  yield.  The  matter  was  further  settled 
by  the  Clare  election  in  1828,  in  which  the  landlords 

s  Lecky,  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,  ii.  75. 


126    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

and  their  tenants  fought  a  great  political  combat, 
where  again  the  new  movement  was  victorious. 
O'Connell,  though  not  qualified  to  sit  in  parliament, 
was  elected  in  preference  to  a  popular  candidate. 

Wellington's  influence  was  now  thrown  entirely 
into  the  scale  for  enfranchisement:  thus  only,  he 
thought,  could  civil  war  be  prevented.  Then  the 
king  and  the  peers  were  forced  to  yield,  and  in  1829 
the  Catholic  Emancipation  Act  was  passed.  The 
denial  of  transubstantiation  and  the  old  oaths  so  of- 
fensive to  Roman  Catholics  were  done  away  with,  and 
Catholics  upon  taking  an  oath  of  allegiance  might  be 
admitted  to  both  Houses  of  Parliament  and  to  most 
civil,  judicial,  and  political  offices;  that  is,  the  law 
conceded  to  Catholics  in  the  United  Kingdom  full 
political  and  civil  rights,  with  certain  exceptions, 
chief  among  which  were  the  offices  of  sovereign,  lord 
chancellor,  and  lord  lieutenant  of  Ireland.  On  the 
other  hand  the  forty-shilling  freeholders  in  Ireland 
were  disfranchised,  and  the  number  of  the  electorate 
diminished  by  raising  the  qualification  for  voting  to 
ten  pounds;  so  that  afterwards  it  was  said  that  the 
government  took  away  with  one  hand  much  of  what 
it  had  given  with  the  other.  Thus  culminated  a  long 
struggle,  which  gave  to  Catholics,  not  only  in  Ire- 
land, but  also  in  England,  where  a  milder  struggle 
had  long  been  carried  on,  the  rights  of  complete  citi- 
zenship of  which  they  had  been  deprived  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  Reformation.  They  were  enfran- 
chised before  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     127 

was  changed  in  1832,  this  being  the  last  and  one  of 
the  greatest  reforms  made  under  the  old  parliamen- 
tary system. 

Unfortunately  in  Ireland  this  concession  came  as  a 
result  of  events  which  left  evil  memory  behind  them. 
Protest  and  appeal  carried  on  through  a  long  time 
availed  little,  but  at  last  a  great  measure  of  relief 
had  been  secured  through  force,  intimidation,  and 
coercion.  It  was  a  pity  that  the  British  government, 
if  it  intended  to  yield  at  all,  had  not  done  so  before 
violence  and  threats  were  raised  up  against  it;  and 
that  once  it  was  confronted  by  wholesale  intimida- 
tion it  was  found  necessary  to  yield ;  for  the  lesson  was 
not  to  be  lost  in  Ireland,  and  many  a  time  in  after 
days  it  was  said  that  Britain  never  gave  what  she  was 
not  forced  to  yield,  and  that  when  she  had  been  co- 
erced, no  thanks  were  due.  Just  before  the  great  war 
the  militant  suffragettes  were  saying  much  the  same 
thing  in  England,  and  Sinn  Feiners  have  said  it  more 
than  once  since  their  rebellion. 

In  the  years  which  followed,  the  great  Irish  leader 
and  the  Irish  members  in  the  House  of  Commons 
supported  the  Whigs  and  the  Liberals ;  and  it  should 
be  observed  that  from  the  first  the  Irish  members, 
when  not  engrossed  in  some  bitter  struggle  for  Irish 
rights,  have  been  consistent  and  staunch  supporters 
of  liberalism  and  democracy  in  the  government  of  the 
United  Kingdom.  O'Connell  was  of  great  assistance 
to  Earl  Grey  during  the  contest  over  parliamentary 
reform  from  1830  to  1832. 


128          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

The  Whigs  of  the  early  Victorian  period  were  in- 
clined to  a  conciliatory  Irish  policy.  But  during  this 
time  the  condition  of  Ireland  was  much  disturbed, 
as  the  people,  more  conscious  of  their  power  under 
the  new  system  and  with  the  new  methods,  became 
more  aggressive.  There  was  a  terrible  tithe  war,  in 
which  the  peasants  committed  numerous  crimes,  while 
the  landlords  carried  on  a  policy  of  clearance,  of  driv- 
ing away  the  tenants,  and  consolidating  small  hold- 
ings into  large  estates.  Such  a  movement  in  Eng- 
land had  caused  great  misery  there  during  the  six- 
teenth, seventeenth,  and  even  the  eighteenth  century. 
In  Ireland  it  had  gone  on  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  as  agricultural  lands  were  given 
over  to  grazing;  and  various  causes  contributed  to 
continue  it  now.  So  great  was  the  misery,  and  so 
great  was  the  lawlessness  which  resulted  from  the 
evictions,  that  Ireland  was  controlled  only  through 
coercion  acts  and  a  rule  of  force. 

O'Connell  did  not  consider  that  his  work  of  agita- 
tion had  come  to  an  end  with  the  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation Act.  When,  in  the  moment  of  his  triumph, 
a  friend  had  jokingly  asked  whether  his  occupation 
were  not  gone,  he  had  replied:  "Isn't  there  a  Re- 
peal of  the  Union?"  4  He  now  began  to  think  of  this 
as  the  only  remedy  for  the  evils  of  Ireland,  as  others 
had  from  the  beginning;  but  the  reformed  parliament 
undertook  remedial  legislation  for  Ireland,  and  tem- 
porarily he  dropped  his  plan  and  supported  the 

*Lecky,  ii.  98. 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     129 

ministry.  In  1838,  in  addition  to  a  poor  law  not 
pleasing  to  the  Irish,  a  law  was  passed  for  the  com- 
mutation of  tithes.  The  amount  was  reduced  by  one 
quarter,  and  tithes  converted  into  a  land  tax,  thus 
taking  the  payment  from  the  Catholic  peasants  and 
transferring  it  to  the  Protestant  landlords,  who  might 
then  try  to  recover  it  in  increased  rents.  In  1840, 
after  a  struggle  with  determined  opposition  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  a  reform  was  made  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Irish  towns  or  municipal  corporations.  The 
government  of  these  places  had  in  older  times  got  into 
the  hands  of  Protestant  officials  who  constituted  self- 
elected  bodies.  Such  offices  had  been  opened  to 
Catholics  by  the  law  of  1793,  but  in  the  forty  years 
since,  not  a  single  Catholic  had  sat  in  the  corporation 
of  Dublin,  mostly  a  Catholic  city.  In  England  also 
and  elsewhere  in  earlier  times  municipal  government 
had  been  largely  in  the  hands  of  small  numbers  of 
electors  or  controlled  by  oligarchic  bodies  of  officials 
constituting  close  corporations,  and  in  England 
municipalities  had  only  been  modernized  and  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  rate-payers  a  few  years  before  by  the 
Municipal  Reform  Act  of  1835.  Now  in  Ireland  the 
right  of  electing  officials  in  the  towns  was  conferred 
upon  persons  paying  a  rental  of  ten  pounds. 

Some  of  those  who  administered  the  government 
of  Ireland  were  liberal-minded,  favoring  concession 
and  reform,  seeing  clearly  the  social  and  economic 
difficulties  of  the  Irish  people;  but  they  had  to  con- 
front the  vested  interests  of  the  landlords,  many  of 


130    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

them  not  resident  in  the  island.  In  1837  O'Connell 
declared  that  he  was  willing  to  try  to  obtain  justice 
for  Ireland  without  repeal,  but  if  there  was  not  to 
be  repeal  of  the  Union,  justice  must  be  given  by 
England.  Amelioration  was  difficult  and  tardy,  how- 
ever, and  perhaps  the  Irish  leader  was  fond  of  agita- 
tion for  its  own  sake.  During  all  this  period  the 
great  clearances  were  going  on.  The  fall  in  the  price 
of  corn  had  made  agriculture  less  profitable  both  to 
peasant  and  landlord,  and  now  whenever  opportunity 
offered,  peasants  were  being  put  from  the  land,  as 
was  the  landlord's  right  by  the  law,  and  the  peasants 
were  turned  adrift  to  compete  with  other  peas- 
ants for  the  smaller  amount  of  land  that  remained 
for  them,  thus  raising  rents  and  depressing  their  own 
condition.  For  it  was  the  tragedy  of  these  people, 
even  after  they  got  some  reform,  that  they  were 
crowded  upon  land  scarce  sufficient  to  support  them, 
and  crushed  under  rents  too  great  to  be  paid.  Now 
they  were  being  put  from  the  land  on  which  they  had 
struggled  so  terribly  for  existence,  that  the  landlord 
might  turn  his  acres  to  pasture  or  undertake  with 
modern  methods  farming  on  a  large  scale  upon  con- 
solidated holdings.  So,  there  was  discontent  and  dis- 
like of  everything  English,  and  vaguely  in  the  minds 
of  the  peasants  their  economic  grievance  against  the 
landlord  and  because  of  the  fall  in  prices  was  merged 
into  political  discontent  with  the  Union,  as  in  some 
way  responsible  for  all  of  the  ills  they  endured. 

About  1841  O'Connell  began  another  great  agita- 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     131 

tion,  for  the  repeal  of  the  Union.  With  unerring  in- 
sight he  saw  that  this  was  the  one  question  upon  which 
he  could  unite  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  again  he 
took  care  to  get  the  fullest  support  of  the  priests. 
Some  of  his  best  friends  in  the  former  movement  fell 
away  from  him,  and  he  was  opposed  by  the  upper 
classes  of  the  Catholics  as  well  as  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  of  Protestants.  Essentially  the  movement 
was  ecclesiastical,  under  the  priests,  democratic,  and 
mostly  Roman  Catholic.  In  1843  the  movement 
really  began.  Enormous  meetings  of  the  people  were 
held,  in  which  O'Connell  and  the  priests  gave  evidence 
of  extraordinary  power  of  control  over  their  follow- 
ers, keeping  them  orderly  and  sober.  About  the  hill 
of  Tara,  renowned  in  Irish  tradition  and  legend, 
where  the  old  Irish  over-kings  had  once  held  their 
state,  he  assembled,  it  is  said,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
million  adherents.  He  aroused  the  minds  of  those 
who  could  hear  him  to  heroic  enthusiasm,  portraying 
the  glories  of  Ireland  to  be,  while  far  away  stretched 
a  sea  of  people  beyond  his  voice  but  within  the  spell 
of  his  presence.  This  was  the  time  when  an  Irish 
temperance  movement  under  the  guidance  of  Father 
Matthew  had  swept  over  Ireland,  strengthening  char- 
acter and  making  for  order  and  self-control;  and  it 
had  no  little  to  do  with  the  quiet  behavior  of  the  peo- 
ple. But  so  impressive  was  the  result  of  O'Connell's 
effort  that  the  government  was  alarmed.  There  had 
been  nothing  illegal  and  no  disorder  or  outrage,  but 
here  was  a  new  and  uncanny  power,  and  it  was  not 


132    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

doubted  that  if  he  gave  the  word  or  if  some  rash 
priest  incited  the  people,  there  might  easily  be  a  re- 
bellion more  formidable  than  the  last.  Therefore 
military  forces  were  strengthened,  and  the  govern- 
ment intervened  decisively.  In  1843  another  great 
meeting  to  be  held  at  Clontarf  was  forbidden. 
O'Connell  yielded  at  once,  but  he  was  soon  arrested 
and  tried  for  conspiracy.  Condemned  by  a  packed 
jury,  appeal  was  made  to  the  House  of  Lords.  In 
days  past  O'Connell  had  savagely  attacked  the  peers, 
but  they  acted  now  with  the  fairness  which  English 
tribunals  are  accustomed  to  use,  and  reversed  the  sen- 
tence of  conviction. 

This  was  the  crisis  of  his  career.  He  had  always 
declared  against  violence  and  force,  and  on  this  prin- 
ciple he  acted  when  at  last  the  great  moment  came. 
Accordingly  there  had  been  no  bloodshed  in  Ireland. 
But  some  believed  that  the  day  for  such  moderation 
was  gone.  There  rose  up,  at  first  round  O'Connell, 
a  group  of  young  men,  who  wished  to  restore  Irish 
nationality  as  well  as  redress  wrongs  in  Ireland. 
These  were  the  days  when  Italians  were  struggling 
to  break  the  Austrian  yoke,  and  "Young  Italy"  had 
been  instituted  by  Mazzini.  Charles  Gavan  Duffy, 
Thomas  Davis,  and  John  Mitchel,  grandfather  of  the 
late  mayor  of  New  York,  founded  now  the  Society 
of  Young  Ireland.  They  were  something  like  Sinn 
Fein,  which  arose  long  after  they  were  gone.  As 
O'Connell  drew  back,  they  would  have  pressed  for- 
ward, looking  upon  him  as  a  man  of  resounding  words 


IRELAND  UNDER  THE  UNION     133 

and  paltry  deeds.  For  the  present  nothing  came  of 
it  all.  The  British  government  tried  some  measure 
of  conciliation,  which  resulted  in  little  more  than  as- 
sistance to  the  Roman  Catholic  college  at  Maynooth. 
Before  matters  went  farther  there  came  a  disaster 
so  great  that  Ireland  was  overwhelmed  in  terrible  and 
universal  woe. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   FAMINE   AND   THE   FENIANS 

C'est  un  grave  "moment"  de  1'histoire  de  1'Irlande  que 
la  Grande  Famine  .  .  .  cette  Irlande  legere  et  gaie,  hospi- 
taliere  et  genereuse,  la  main  tendue  et  le  coeur  ouvert, 
cette  Irlande-la  est  morte.  Toute  joie  s'en  est  allee;  plus 
de  jeux  au  grand  air,  plus  de  danses  aux  carrefours ;  1'ame 
se  fait  ego'iste  et  pessimiste,  la  haine  de  1'Angleterre  et  du 
landlord  s'ancre  plus  que  jamais  dans  les  poitrines. 

Louis  Paul-Dubois,  L'Irlande  Contemporaine  et 
la  Question  Irlandaise  (Paris,  1907),  p.  67. 

DURING  the  nineteenth  century  the  population 
of  Ireland  was  growing  rapidly,  from  more 
than  four  millions  and  a  half  in  1800  to  over  eight 
millions  in  1840.  The  great  bulk  of  this  population 
was  engaged  in  agriculture,  there  being  in  Ireland 
little  industrial  life.  This  agriculture  was  rude,  and 
carried  on  with  small  wisdom  and  care,  as  might  have 
been  expected  from  the  evil  conditions  under  which 
the  work  was  done.  On  their  scanty  patches  the  cul- 
tivators worked,  and  at  the  end  of  the  season  the  best 
that  they  had  produced  was  given  to  pay  the  hard 
rents  which  were  exacted  from  them;  and  while  their 
wheat  and  poultry  and  cattle  went  to  the  landlord  and 
were  by  him  sent  abroad  for  sale  in  foreign  markets, 
the  peasants  supported  themselves  largely  upon  po- 

134 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     135 

tatoes,  which  made  up  the  great  staple  crop  of  the 
island.  More  and  more  was  the  increasing  popula- 
tion thrown  back  upon  the  soil,  and  more  and  more 
was  the  soil  divided  and  subdivided  among  the  greater 
number  of  those  who  had  to  get  a  subsistence  out  of 
it.  Many  a  time  the  peasant  had  between  his  family 
and  starvation  only  a  few  potatoes;  always  there  was 
danger  of  disaster.  For  two  centuries  a  great  many 
of  the  Irish  people  had  had  in  the  best  of  times  only 
the  rudest  and  coarsest  fare,  and  very  often  too  little 
food  to  nourish  them  properly.  There  had  been  ter- 
rible famines  in  the  eighteenth  century ;  they  were  no 
less  frequent  in  the  nineteenth,  occurring  in  1822, 
1831,  1835,  1836,  and  1837.  And  as  increasing  re- 
liance was  put  upon  the  potato,  there  were  not  want- 
ing signs  that  the  soil  was  becoming  impoverished,  and 
that  a  far  greater  calamity  might  be  near. 

In  1845  the  potato  blight  spread  over-  England  and 
Ireland,  and  in  Ireland  the  crop  was  a  failure.  Im- 
mediately it  was  seen  that  a  great  famine  was  at  hand 
unless  the  British  government  took  speedy  and  effec- 
tive measures  to  bring  food  into  the  island  for  relief. 
But  this  was  the  era  of  the  Corn  Laws,  which  had  first 
been  passed  in  1815  by  a  parliament  of  English  land- 
lords, for  the  purpose  of  excluding  wheat  from  abroad 
unless  it  sold  at  very  high  prices  at  home ;  and  now  it 
was  difficult  to  bring  in  supplies  of  food  which  the 
impoverished  Irish  could  buy.  Under  the  leadership 
of  Peel  there  was  indeed  a  great  revolution  in  British 
economic  policy,  marked  by  the  repeal  of  the  Corn 


136    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Laws  in  the  summer  of  1846,  but  meanwhile  condi- 
tions in  Ireland  were  far  more  grave.  In  1846  the 
potato  crop  totally  failed.  The  British  authorities, 
relieved  of  tariffs  now,  were  yet  hampered  by  belief 
in  the  prevailing  economic  theory  of  laissez-faire,  and 
inclined  to  leave  things  to  work  themselves  out;  and 
when  they  found  it  necessary  to  do  something  never- 
theless, they  were  hampered  by  inexperience  in  deal- 
ing with  such  matters,  so  that  what  they  did  was  after- 
wards seen  to  be  partial  and  unwise.  The  govern- 
ment bought  up  large  quantities  of  Indian  corn  to  sell 
in  Ireland  at  low  price,  and  established  relief  works 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  employment.  But  the  food 
that  was  brought  in  came  too  late  to  save  the  multi- 
tudes who  were  starving,  and  the  public  works  under- 
taken were  largely  temporary  or  useless.  All  over 
Ireland,  especially  in  the  outlying  districts,  the  hap- 
less peasants  sank  down  in  hopeless  despair,  lingered 
on  in  pangs  of  hunger,  and  at  last  died — in  their 
cabins,  on  the  roads  as  they  dragged  themselves  out 
in  search  of  relief,  on  the  hills,  in  deserted  places, 
everywhere,  until  England,  and  Europe,  and  the 
world  were  appalled  and  stricken  with  horror.  Some 
of  the  things  which  took  place  were  so  terrible  that 
men  had  not  the  heart  to  relate  them.  It  was  impossi- 
ble to  bury  all  the  dead ;  and  yet,  so  numerous  were  the 
burials,  that  JJhe  same  coffin  with  hinged  bottom  was 
used  again  and  again.  In  1847  the  crop  was  an  en- 
tire failure  again.  Altogether  there  was  famine  in 
the  land  from  1846  to  1849. 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     137 

Some  of  the  people  rushed  into  the  towns,  others  wan- 
dered listlessly  along  the  high  roads  in  the  vague  and  vain 
hope  that  food  would  somehow  or  other  come  to  their  hands. 
They  grasped  at  everything  that  promised  sustenance;  they 
plucked  turnips  from  the  fields ;  many  were  glad  to  live  for 
weeks  on  a  single  meal  of  cabbage  a  day.  In  some  cases 
they  feasted  on  the  dead  bodies  of  horses  and  asses  and  dogs ; 
and  there  is  at  least  one  horrible  story  of  a  mother  eating 
the  limbs  of  her  dead  child.  In  many  places  dead  bodies 
were  discovered  with  grass  in  their  mouths  and  in  their 
stomachs  and  bowels.  In  Mayo,  a  man  who  had  been  ob- 
served searching  for  food  on  the  seashore,  was  found  dead  on 
the  roadside,  after  vainly  attempting  to  prolong  his 
wretched  life  by  means  of  the  half-masticated  turf  and  grass 
which  remained  unswallowed  in  his  mouth.  Nettle-tops, 
wild  mustard,  and  watercress  were  sought  after  with  des- 
perate eagerness.  The  assuaging  of  hunger  with  seaweed 
too  often  meant  the  acceleration  of  death,  but  seaweed  was 
greedily  devoured,  so  also  were  diseased  cattle ;  and  there 
were  inquests  in  many  places  on  people  who  had  died  from 
eating  diseased  potatoes.1 

Pestilence,  the  wan  sister  of  hunger,  appeared  to 
complete  the  destruction.  In  1846-7  a  virulent 
plague,  the  "road-fever,"  fell  upon  the  land.  People 
died  as  they  crawled  out  for  assistance;  or  were 
abandoned  by  their  friends  who  fled  from  the  pest. 

There  had  fallen  upon  Ireland  a  calamity  which 
was  owing  to  numerous  causes,  for  some  of  which 
contemporary  England  was  certainly  not  to  blame. 
Population  had  increased  so  fast  that  in  a  purely  agri- 

i  The  ABC  Home  Rule  Handbook,  p.  64. 


138    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

cultural  country  it  could  scarce  be  supported  any 
longer.  But  the  disaster  was  largely  due  to  the  ig- 
norance and  lowly  condition  into  which  most  of  the 
people  had  been  forced  by  circumstances  over  which 
they  had  no  control,  and  especially  to  the  fact  that 
Ireland  was  still  owned  by  the  landlords,  many  of 
whom  lived  outside  the  island  and  took  no  pains  to 
have  care  for  the  peasants  who  toiled  on  their  lands. 
And  it  seemed  a  grievous  thing  that  the  exportation 
of  corn  from  Ireland  was  not  forbidden,  for  the  blight 
had  not  affected  the  other  crops  of  the  island,  and 
grain  that  went  out  to  pay  rents  was  to  a  considerable 
extent  exported  to  England  at  the  very  time  that  Sir 
Robert  Peel  was  partly  assuaging  the  famine  by  im- 
porting Indian  meal  from  places  far  off.  The  public 
works  undertaken  to  give  employment  to  the  starv- 
ing were  done  largely  with  money  considered  as  a 
loan  to  Ireland,  to  be  repaid  later  on.  Hills  were 
cut  down,  and  then  filled  up;  canals  were  dug  in 
which  water  would  not  stay ;  and  roads  were  built  in 
useless  places.  In  after  days  it  was  said  that  the 
famine  itself  could  not  indeed  have  been  averted,  as 
things  then  were,  with  the  failure  of  the  staple  crop 
of  food,  but  if  there  had  been  Home  Rule  with  an 
Irish  parliament,  cognizant  of  Irish  needs  and  sym- 
pathetic with  them,  much  could  have  been  done  to  pre- 
vent the  dreadful  things  which  ensued;  and  that  if 
there  had  been  such  a  famine  in  England,  the  meas- 
ures taken  would  have  been  very  different  also.  Much 
of  this  may  be  true.  Certainly  nothing  that  happened 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     139 

in  the  nineteenth  century  did  so  much  to  arouse  the 
world  to  the  belief  that  something  was  wrong  with 
Irish  conditions. 

Not  that  the  suffering  was  viewed  with  indifference. 
There  was  genuine  compassion  in  England  when  the 
calamity  was  really  comprehended ;  and  it  is  a  mistake 
to  think  that  in  Ireland  landlords  continued  to  reap 
profits  from  starving  tenants  with  cool  indifference. 
Actually  many  of  them,  who  had  been  wont  to  reap 
profit  from  the  land,  now  went  down  into  ruin  along 
with  the  peasants.  Middlemen  and  landlords  gave 
what  they  could  until  often  they  were  reduced  to  des- 
titution themselves.  "By  the  end  of  1849  it  was  said 
the  Irish  tenants  looked  as  if  they  had  just  come  out 
of  their  graves,  and  the  landlords  as  if  they  were 
going  into  theirs."  It  is  true  that  at  this  very  time, 
what  with  tenants  leaving  their  farms  in  despair,  and 
the  whole  system  of  things  seeming  to  crumble  to 
ruin,  clearance  went  on,  and  consolidation  of  small 
pieces  of  land  into  larger  holdings.  Yet  this  is  the 
time  when  the  middlemen  disappeared,  and  many  of 
the  proprietors  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of 
their  charity  and  the  crushing  burden  of  poor  relief 
imposed  by  the  state. 

Some  things  there  are  so  complicated  and  extended 
that  it  is  difficult  to  be  certain,  and  no  proofs  can 
be  given  with  respect  to  assertions  about  them ;  but  it 
would  seem  that  the  famine  and  pestilence  of  these 

2  Lord  Fitzmauricc  and  J.  R.  Thursfield,  in  Two  Centuries  of  Irish 
History,  p.  413. 


140    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

fatal  years  changed  the  character  of  the  Irish  people. 
From  the  savage  and  brutal  tyranny  of  the  Mongols 
it  appears  that  Russian  character  took  an  abiding  mel- 
ancholy and  sadness,  which  the  person  of  nowadays 
thinks  he  detects  in  the  wailing  minor  chords  of  their 
music,  and  the  strange,  drear  things  which  the  mas- 
ters of  their  literature  have  written.  For  some  years 
after  the  terrible  disasters  and  humiliations  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  War  there  was  persistent  pessimism 
in  the  soul  of  France.  So  it  was  now  with  Erin. 
The  Irish  peasant,  long  noted,  even  in  the  midst  of 
his  wretchedness  and  dirt,  as  open-hearted  and  open- 
handed,  gay,  hospitable,  careless  and  joyous,  this 
Irishman  was  not  seen  so  often  now.  There  was  uni- 
versal pessimism,  hatred,  and  despair,  and  although 
times  were  to  change  before  very  long,  by  no  means 
is  all  of  it  gone  in  Ireland  at  present. 

A  million  and  a  half  persons,  it  is  thought,  were 
stricken  with  the  fever;  a  half  million,  it  may  be  a 
million,  perished  from  the  hunger  and  sickness.  But 
this  was  not  all.  From  the  stricken  land  Irishmen 
began  to  flee  in  a  mighty  exodus  which  drained  the 
island  of  its  people.  In  1841  the  population  had  been 
8,175,124;  ten  years  later  it  was  6,552,385.  In  the 
decade  1851-1860  it  is  said  that  a  million  and  a  half 
Irishmen  emigrated,  fleeing  from  the  old  home  to  a 
new  and  greater  Ireland,  going  most  of  them  to  the 
United  States  of  America.  These  were  the  days  of 
the  "coffin  ships,"  and  of  great  prosperity  for  some 
of  the  shipping  companies.  Facilities  were  inade- 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     141 

quate  for  the  vast  host  of  fugitives  who  crossed  the 
Atlantic.  In  the  days  when  negro  slaves  were 
brought  from  Africa  to  Liverpool  or  Jamaica,  the 
anti-slavery  societies  used  to  exhibit  a  broadside  show- 
ing a  slaver,  like  a  great  floating  coffin,  with  the  bodies 
of  slaves  packed  between  decks  as  close  as  they  could 
be  put,  there  to  stay  in  heat  and  thirst,  in  sickness 
and  foul  air,  for  all  the  long  weeks  while  the  passage 
was  made.  With  the  worst  of  the  Irish  emigrant 
ships  now  it  was  not  very  much  better.  Once  Sir 
Robert  Peel  quoted  the  account  of  a  man  who  had 
made  the  passage  and  had  seen  hundreds  of  people, 
men,  women  and  children,  huddled  together  indis- 
criminately, without  light,  with  insufficient  air,  wal- 
lowing in  filth,  sick  in  body  and  heart,  scarcely  able 
to  move,  some  raving  in  madness,  some  in  the  throes 
of  death,  dying  without  consolation,  buried  in  the  deep 
as  the  ship  passed  on.  And  those  who  survived  and 
found  in  America  the  opportunities  denied  them  in 
Ireland,  who  toiled  to  send  back  money  to  the  aged 
and  stricken  not  able  to  come,  who  presently  rose  up 
to  power  and  prosperity  in  their  new  homes,  most  of 
them  carried  through  their  lives  a  hatred,  often  igno- 
rant and  unreasoning,  but  unquenchable  and  fierce, 
not  able  to  see  atonement  or  excuse,  not  able  to  for- 
get or  forgive,  until,  after  generations  had  passed, 
in  their  descendants  it  might  slowly  burn  itself  away. 
By  the  end  of  1847  cheap  food  was  being  brought 
into  Ireland  and  a  good  potato  crop  had  been  gath- 
ered. By  next  spring  the  famine  was  largely  past. 


142          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

That  spring  O'Connell  died  in  a  distant  land,  worn 
out  by  his  efforts,  and  crushed,  perhaps,  by  the  awful 
calamities  which  had  come  to  his  country.  Men  be- 
gan to  think  of  the  future.  But  Ireland  did  not  re- 
cover. Again  a  great  economic  change  was  at  work 
to  her  disadvantage.  At  the  beginning  of  the  famine 
the  Corn  Laws  had  been  repealed  in  England.  For 
some  time  there  had  been  agitation,  led  by  Cobden  and 
Bright,  to  abolish  these  laws  which  enhanced  the  price 
of  food,  and  raised  the  cost  of  living  to  artisans  and 
mechanics.  Originally  the  laws  had  been  made  to 
protect  agriculture  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  had 
operated  to  the  advantage  of  Ireland  as  well  as  of 
England,  and,  indeed,  as  time  went  on,  more  to  the 
advantage  of  Ireland,  since  she  continued  an  agricul- 
tural country,  deriving  her  income  from  food  sup- 
plies raised  and  exported,  while  England  became 
more  and  more  an  industrial  region.  In  England 
now  manufactures  expanded  with  cheaper  food  for 
the  artisans,  and  great  prosperity  resulted;  but  in 
Ireland,  where  farming  and  grazing  continued  to  be 
the  principal  occupations,  agriculture  declined  in 
competition  with  the  greater  grain  lands  abroad. 
The  Irish  export  trade  in  cereals  was  largely  de- 
stroyed, and  wheat  growing  decayed  at  the  same  time 
that  such  small  manufactures  as  lingered  on  in  Ire- 
land were  extinguished  in  competition  with  the 
greater  ones  across  the  Channel  in  Britain.  Popula- 
tion was  declining  and  continued  to  decline,  for  every 
class  saw  ruin  staring  in  the  face.  The  laborers  who 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     143 

had  fled  from  the  famine  found  far  greater  chances  in 
America,  and  sent  back  intelligence  of  what  they  had 
found.  At  first  the  emigrants  fled  from  the  famine 
and  fever  and  desolation  of  their  land,  but  as  years 
went  by  and  conditions  were  better,  they  went  over 
the  ocean  nevertheless,  answering  the  call  of  them 
who  had  gone  before.  "Emigration,"  said  a  recent 
writer,  "is  now  the  result  of  attraction  from  America 
rather  than  of  repulsion  from  Ireland."  3 

Population  is  by  no  means  the  only  index  to  a 
country's  well-being,  and  Irish  population  increased 
most  greatly  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury when  economic  conditions  were  about  as  bad  as 
they  ever  had  been.  Yet  the  result  of  all  the  things 
that  have  been  detailed  is  that  while  in  the  course 
of  the  period  1801-1901  the  population  of  England 
and  Wales  increased  from  less  than  nine  millions  to 
four  times  that  number,  the  Irish  population  after 
rising  from  four  and  a  half  millions  to  eight,  steadily 
declined  again  to  four,  so  that  now  most  of  the  Irish 
people  are  no  longer  in  Erin  but  in  the  lands  over 
sea,  particularly  in  the  United  States,  where  they  have 
found  refuge  and  new  hope.  And  it  is  Ireland's  best 
who  have  gone,  the  strongest,  most  capable  and  ener- 
getic, leaving  behind  them  in  a  poor  and  declining 
country  a  disproportionately  great  burden  of  the 
blind  and  the  feeble-minded,  the  weak,  the  halt,  the 
diseased. 

The  misfortune  of  Ireland  was  furthered  by  a  re- 

s  J.  R.  Fisher,  in  Against  Home  Rule,  pp.  68,  69. 


144          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

arrangement  of  finance,  which  took  place  soon  after. 
There  was  a  great  increase  in  Irish  taxation  in  the 
decade  1850-1860,  resulting  from  the  Gladstone  bud- 
gets, the  increase  being  due  especially  to  the  equaliza- 
tion of  the  spirit  duties  in  England  and  Ireland,  and 
extending  the  income  tax  to  Ireland.  Such  burden 
had  hitherto  been  escaped  owing  to  the  fact  that 
by  the  terms  of  the  Act  of  Union,  the  Irish  were  en- 
titled to  special  exemptions  because  of  their  back- 
ward economic  condition.  It  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  Irishmen  would  be  permanently  exempted  from 
the  burdens  imposed  upon  the  British  tax-payers, 
perhaps,  but  now  when  Gladstone  was  striving  to  ex- 
tricate the  finances  of  the  United  Kingdom  from  the 
confusion  and  unsatisfactory  position  in  which  his 
predecessors  had  left  them,  he  abruptly  raised  the  tax- 
ation of  Ireland,  it  is  said,  from  14s.  9d.  per  head  to 
26s.  7d.  It  is  true,  the  equalization  of  spirit  duties 
and  extension  of  the  income  tax  to  Ireland  were  ac- 
companied by  the  remission  of  a  debt  of  more  than 
four  million  sterling  owed  by  Ireland  to  the  British 
treasury.  None  the  less  Englishmen  themselves  have 
not  failed  to  observe  that  the  increase  created  a  new 
crushing  burden  at  a  time  when  Great  Britain  was 
going  forward  in  wondrous  prosperity  but  Ireland 
was  only  beginning  to  emerge  from  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  through  which  she  had  passed.  Irish  writers 
have  seen  in  it  an  intolerable  burden  laid  upon  their 
country  despite  the  pledge  once  given  that  Ireland's 
ability  to  pay  should  always  be  considered.  Since 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     145 

that  time  over-taxation  has  been  the  subject  of  fre- 
quent complaint.  In  1896  a  Financial  Commission 
of  the  government  reported  that  because  of  the 
equalization  of  taxes  the  result  had  been  very  un- 
equal: that  Ireland  was  paying  one-eleventh  of  the 
revenues  of  the  United  Kingdom,  though  her  tax- 
able capacity  was  not  more  than  one-twentieth;  that 
from  her  taxable  surplus  Great  Britain  paid  less  than 
two  shillings  in  the  pound,  Ireland  five  times  that 
much.  This  report  has  been  much  enlarged  upon  by 
recent  Nationalist  writers,  and  their  striking  conclu- 
sions have  been  spread  broadcast  for  purposes  of  de- 
nunciation and  propaganda.  But  there  have  always 
been  justifiable  differences  of  opinion  about  the  Re- 
port, and  strong  dissenting  opinions  have  been  main- 
tained about  the  matter.  On  the  other  side  it  is  as- 
serted nowadays  that  actually  most  of  the  taxation 
paid  by  Irishmen  is  upon  their  tobacco  and  liquor, 
and  that  far  from  being  overtaxed,  Irishmen  in  Ire- 
land are  taxed  less  than  the  inhabitants  of  Great 
Britain,  and  less  than  Irishmen  in  any  other  country 
in  the  world. 

The  period  of  famine  and  emigration  closed,  as 
might  be  expected,  with  rebellion  and  ugly  resist- 
ance. Some  things  were  being  done  for  Ireland,  but 
they  did  not  go  to  the  root  of  the  economic  evil,  and 
the  continuance  of  depression  and  old  abuses  left 
persistent  hate  and  dislike.  Many  people  then  as  now 
believed  that  all  of  the  unhappiness  of  Ireland  came 
from  the  Union,  that  any  connection  with  England 


146          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

was  disastrous,  and  they  believed  that  deliverance  and 
a  glorious  future  would  come  after  repeal  of  the 
Union  or  severance  from  England  by  force.  One 
might  have  had  doubt  then  as  now,  but  what  most 
Irishmen  felt  was  that  things  were  wrong,  and  so 
they  were  ready  for  rebellion.  In  1848  revolution 
was  sweeping  across  Europe,  completing  the  work 
which  Frenchmen  began  before  Napoleon's  time.  All 
through  the  west  and  middle  parts  of  the  Continent 
the  movement  was  felt,  and  everywhere  vested  inter- 
est and  old  repression  went  down.  In  Austria,  Met- 
ternich,  leader  of  reaction,  was  driven  from  power. 
In  Germany  the  liberal  patriots,  who  would  have  made 
a  united  Germany  with  liberal  constitutional  govern- 
ment, rose  up  only  to  give  way  to  the  growth  of  the 
Prussian  spirit,  which  we  know  better  now.  Italians 
attempted  to  win  a  step  nearer  to  unity  and  freedom. 
In  France  a  middle-class  monarchy  was  overthrown 

V 

for  the  establishment  of  an  unstable  republic.  In 
England,  beyond  the  circle  of  European  affairs,  and 
almost  outside  the  spirit  of  revolution,  conservative, 
redressing  wrongs  slowly,  not  waiting  for  violent 
overturn,  there  were  the  vast  demonstrations  of  the 
Chartists  and  demands  for  reform.  In  Ireland  the 
effects  of  the  general  unrest  were  felt  in  the  cul- 
mination of  the  work  of  Young  Ireland.  Its  ad- 
herents had  looked  to  France  for  assistance  and  sym- 
pathy; now  following  the  lead  of  the  French  liberals 
they  prepared  for  revolt.  What  they  attempted 
failed  at  the  start,  and  the  leaders  were  imprisoned 


and  transported.  Then  danger  of  rebellion  came  to 
an  end;  but  the  misery  and  unrest  continued. 

In  the  years  which  followed,  when  the  magnitude 
of  the  disasters  that  had  come  upon  Ireland  were 
better  understood — the  decrease  of  population,  the 
continuing  emigration,  the  decline  in  hope,  the  ap- 
parent torpor  which  enveloped  the  people — it  began 
to  seem  that  again  some  Englishmen  thought  that 
Ireland  might  be  peopled  with  English  Protestants 
in  the  place  of  the  Catholic  Celts.  Certainly  some 
believed  that  the  ills  of  Ireland  might  be  traced  to 
over-population,  and  that  this  source  of  trouble  being 
now  amended,  things  would  improve.  Very  little  was 
done,  then,  to  make  conditions  better  for  the  Irish 
people.  There  was  still,  what  there  long  had  been, 
a  government  hated  or  endured  by  most  of  the  in- 
habitants, resting  upon  force,  and  ruling  in  the  in- 
terests of  Protestants  and  landlords,  who  were  a 
minority,  yet  all-powerful  in  the  administration  of  the 
law,  the  regulation  of  the  land  system,  and  in  oppos- 
ing reforms  for  the  mass  of  the  people. 

He  who  ascribes  this  to  the  brutality  or  wickedness 
of  Englishmen  would  be  much  mistaken.  The  great- 
est faults  were  indifference  and  lack  of  knowledge. 
It  must  be  remembered  also  that  throughout  the  ear- 
lier half  of  the  nineteenth  century  while  English  men 
and  women  were  immensely  better  off  than  their  fel- 
lows in  Ireland,  yet  many  of  them  also  suffered  from 
grievous  inequality  and  'hard  oppression.  A  great 
many  of  them  had  long  since  been  crowded  off  the 


148    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

land  and  driven  to  the  towns.  For  some  time,  under 
the  old  factory  system,  many  of  them  were  often  com- 
pelled to  work  for  long  hours  at  scanty  wages,  in  the 
midst  of  brutal,  debasing,  and  harmful  conditions. 
And  the  getting  of  reforms  to  better  their  position 
was  a  very  long  and  difficult  process.  There  was  an 
established  church  in  England  as  there  was  in  Ire- 
land; and  if  the  great  majority  of  the  people  in  Ire- 
land regarded  it  as  a  baneful  oppression,  a  large 
minority  of  Englishmen  thought  of  it  as  an  alien  bur- 
den also.  In  Ireland  the  government  was  directed 
by  aristocracy  and  landlords;  after  all  in  England 
it  was  in  the  hands  of  the  aristocracy  and  industrial 
magnates;  in  both  countries  government  was  con- 
trolled by  the  upper  classes,  with  the  middle  classes 
just  beginning  to  share.  Often  the  upper  classes 
sincerely  desired  to  rule  well,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent  they  did  so.  But  distance,  indifference,  ig- 
norance, preoccupation  often  resulted  grievously  for 
those  over  whom  they  were  placed,  whether  it  was 
the  agricultural  tenants  in  Ireland  or  the  factory 
workers  in  the  Midlands  and  north  Britain.  What 
was  destined  to  bring  about  a  revolution  had  not  yet 
taken  place:  the  admission  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  to  the  franchise,  and  their  gradual  controlling 
the  government  and  changing  it  for  their  betterment 
and  protection.  In  1850  the  electors  of  Great  Britain 
were  only  twenty-eight  per  cent  of  the  adult  male 
population;  in  Ireland  they  were  but  two  per  cent, 
until  a  statute  of  that  year  brought  it  almost  up  to 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     149 

ten.  Later  on,  in  1867  and  in  1884,  the  franchise 
was  extended  to  most  men  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  it  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  as  the  British  elec- 
torate became  wider  and  more  democratic,  real  and 
sweeping  reforms  were  made,  one  after  the  other,  in 
the  interests  of  the  Irish  people.  And  I  shall  at- 
tempt to  show  hereafter  that  the  relations  of  England 
and  Ireland  became  fundamentally  different  when  hu- 
manitarianism  was  more  prevalent  and  when  liberal, 
democratic  government  was  gradually  established  in 
the  United  Kingdom  in  the  later  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

But  in  Ireland  not  much  was  done  for  a  while. 
In  1848  the  Encumbered  Estates  Act  was  passed  to 
enable  impoverished  landlords  to  sell  their  property 
to  new  proprietors  able  and  willing  to  work  and  im- 
prove them.  Usually  the  Irish  landlord  was  hope- 
lessly involved  in  debt,  so  that  he  could  not  develop  or 
improve  even  if  he  would,  and  the  property  was  so 
entangled  and  mortgaged  that  it  was  nearly  impossi- 
ble for  him  to  sell.  Now  property  was  indeed  brought 
on  the  market,  but  the  result  was  not  very  good,  for 
new  purchasers  bought  for  their  profit,  and  as  often 
as  they  could  they  raised  the  rents  further  still.  It 
had  been  hoped  that  lands  would  be  acquired  by  Eng- 
lish and  Scottish  capitalists,  but  not  many  buj^ers 
outside  of  Ireland  came  forward.  A  new  race  of 
landlords  came  into  being,  and  the  condition  of  the 
tenant  was  far  from  improving. 

About  1850  Tenant  Protection  Societies  sprang  up 


150    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

all  over  Ireland.  A  conference  was  held  to  devise 
some  central  organization  for  the  local  societies,  and 
in  this  movement  Presbyterians  from  Ulster  worked 
loyally  with  Roman  Catholics,  condemning  the  Union 
with  England,  and  striving  to  forward  the  rights  of 
the  tenant  and  peasant.  Such  occurrence  might  seem 
to  furnish  good  augury  for  the  later  co-operation  of 
Ulster  with  Celtic  Ireland;  but  such  result  was  not 
obtained  in  the  end. 

There  was  by  no  means  general  harmony  between 
Protestants  and  Catholics  at  this  time,  for  not  only 
did  Episcopalians  stand  generally  with  the  landlords 
in  the  Tenant  Right  movement,  but  there  had  long 
been  a  struggle  between  the  Catholics  led  by  their 
priests  and  certain  Protestant  missionary  organiza- 
tions bent  upon  converting  the  Catholic  peasants. 
The  forces  and  passions  aroused,  which  extended 
through  much  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  tended  to  widen  the  religious  division  which 
so  long  had  sundered  the  people  of  Ireland,  and  in 
the  end  made  it  impossible  for  the  Catholics  and  the 
Protestants  to  share  in  the  same  system  of  national 
schools  and  the  same  national  colleges  for  higher  edu- 
cation. Influential  prelates  declared  against  such  na- 
tional schools,  fearing  that  they  might  be  used  for 
spreading  the  Protestant  religion,  and  so  set  out  to 
procure  denominational  education  under  their  own 
instructors,  in  accordance  with  the  usual  policy  of  the 
Catholic  church. 

The  continuing  misery  led  tq  persistent  unrest.    In 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     151 

Dublin  Phoenix  Clubs  were  founded  by  the  bolder 
youth,  who  still  hoped  to  achieve  Irish  independence. 
Out  of  these  organizations  developed  the  Irish  Re- 
publican Brotherhood,  under  the  leadership  of  James 
Stephens  and  O 'Donovan  Rossa.  Meanwhile  began 
that  assistance  from  over  the  seas,  which  has  troubled 
Great  Britain  so  much  in  the  past  fifty  years.  In 
America  in  1858  was  established  the  Fenian  Brother- 
hood or  Irish  Revolutionary  Brotherhood  by  O'Ma- 
hony,  an  Irish  revolutionist.  "In  the  presence  of  Al- 
mighty God,"  ran  the  membership  oath  of  this  secret 
association,  "I  solemnly  swear  allegiance  to  the  Irish 
Republic,  now  virtually  established,  and  to  take  up 
arms  when  called  on  to  defend  its  independence  and 
integrity."  4  The  Fenians  took  their  name  from  the 
ancient  warriors  of  Ireland,  and  now  set  out  to  pro- 
cure by  terror  and  force  what  the  peaceful  agitators 
had  failed  to  obtain.  All  this  movement  was  revolu- 
tionary and  not  constructive.  It  was  designed  to  se- 
cure the  independence  of  Ireland  at  any  cost,  rather 
than  to  better  agrarian  conditions.  It  was  opposed 
by  moderates  and  constitutionalists;  it  got  no  great 
hold  upon  the  peasants  as  O'Connell's  movement  had, 
and  it  did  not  secure  the  support  of  the  priests.  In 
Ireland  it  was  based  upon  the  efforts  of  a  few  fiery 
enthusiasts  who  gradually  won  supporters,  assisted 
by  numerous  Irishmen  in  America,  who  had  just  con- 
tributed to  the  winning  of  the  War  between  the  States, 
and  who  had  gained  both  military  experience  and 

*  G.  P.  Macdonell,  in  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History,  p.  464. 


152    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

confidence  in  feats  of  arms.  There  was  then  much 
ill-feeling  between  England  and  the  United  States, 
to  which  they  contributed,  and  upon  which  they  re- 
lied. They  had  arms  and  training,  and  from  Amer- 
ica they  sent  assistance  in  money.  Many  of  them 
crossed  the  Atlantic  to  stir  up  disaffection  in  Ireland 
and  spread  secret  terror  in  England. 

Fenianism,  once  so  detested  and  feared  in  Eng- 
land, was  like  similar  things  in  countries  where  grave 
discontent  exists  without  hope  of  amends.  It  con- 
tinued to  be  the  work  mainly  of  Irish-Americans,  but 
in  Ireland  and  England  its  methods  resembled  those 
of  the  terrorists  of  Russia,  and  of  those  who,  it  may  be, 
were  patriots  in  Russia  and  Ukrainia  under  German 
domination.  They  worked  in  secret,  and  they  strove 
by  violence  and  terror  to  procure  the  measures  of  bet- 
terment which  better  means,  they  thought,  could  not 
obtain.  In  1865  there  was  a  plan  to  establish  an 
Irish  Republic.  Suddenly  the  authorities  seized  on 
the  leaders,  but  sentences  of  penal  servitude  did  less 
to  destroy  the  movement  than  win  sympathy  and  ad- 
ditional recruits.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  sus- 
pended, as  often  before,  and  many  arrests  were  made. 
But  there  was  great  uncertaintly  and  anxiety,  for 
everywhere  the  government  was  confronted  by  dis- 
affection and  threats,  until  it  knew  not  where  the  next 
stroke  would  fall.  Arms  were  sent  from  America; 
and  attempt  was  made  to  seize  Chester  Castle,  which 
failed  because  an  informer  betrayed  it.  In  1867  a 
general  rising  was  planned,  but  again 'the  government 


had  timely  information,  and  a  pitiable  failure  was 
followed  by  sentencing  the  leaders  to  penal  servitude 
for  life  or  for  long  terms  of  years.  From  rebellion 
the  movement  went  on  in  sudden  violence  and  secret 
intimidation.  An  attempt  was  made  to  release  Fen- 
ian prisoners  confined  in  Clerkenwell  prison  in  Lon- 
don :  part  of  the  prison  wall  was  blown  up,  and  more 
than  a  hundred  persons  killed  and  injured,  while  the 
injury  done  to  unoffending  men  and  women  nearby 
was  such  as  to  cause  that  kind  of  indignation  in  Eng- 
land which  "Blackhand"  outrages  aroused  in  Amer- 
ica a  generation  later.  About  the  same  time  two  Fen- 
ian prisoners  were  rescued  from  the  prison  van,  or 
"Black  Maria,"  in  Manchester.  In  the  course  of  this 
enterprise  the  sergeant  guarding  the  van  had  his 
brains  blown  out.  For  this  three  Irishmen  received 
sentence  of  death:  even  now  they  are  known  as  the 
"Manchester  Martyrs"  in  Ireland. 

It  is  never  easy  to  judge  such  a  movement,  and 
decision  will  depend  upon  the  standpoint  assumed  be- 
fore the  judgment  is  made.  In  England,  quiet,  pros- 
perous, and  law-abiding,  the  deeds  of  the  Fenians 
were  regarded  with  horror  as  the  acts  of  cowardly 
traitors  and  brutal  assassins.  The  Irish-Americans, 
among  the  best  of  whom  Fenianism  was  widely  dif- 
fused, contributed  to  the  support  of  the  cause,  and  in 
their  hatred  of  England  far  away  looked  on  with 
righteous  zeal  and  passionate  fervor :  they  were  strik- 
ing, they  thought,  in  the  only  way  possible,  at  the  op- 
pressor who  had  wronged  their  fathers  and  despoiled 


154    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

their  home.  In  Ireland  the  movement  had  no  active 
support  from  most  of  the  people,  but  they  seem  to 
have  looked  on  with  little  disapproval,  and  whenever 
the  Fenians  suffered  in  their  wild  enterprise,  consid- 
ered them  martyrs  and  held  them  in  grateful  heart. 
Viewing  the  matter  from  a  distance,  we  see  it  now 
something  like  the  career  of  the  abolitionists  of  Gar- 
rison in  America  before  the  Civil  War,  and  some- 
thing like  the  deeds  of  the  militant  suffragette  women 
in  England  before  the  great  war  of  the  world.  Ab- 
olitionists, Fenians,  suffragettes,  all  of  them,  did  much 
that  was  ugly  and  uncouth,  much  that  seemed  base 
and  unfair ;  they  were  not  considerate  and  not  always 
just,  and  certainly  all  of  them  did  hurt  to  the  cause 
which  they  loved,  turned  people  away  from  reform, 
and  hardened  the  hearts  of  opponents.  And  yet,  this 
is  but  part  of  the  story:  all  of  them,  in  a  way,  sacri- 
ficed themselves  for  a  cause.  Their  deeds  were  un- 
lovely ;  those  for  whom  they  were  working  must  often 
have  despised  them;  but  they  did  inspire  fear,  they 
did  make  men  think,  they  did  get  attention  which 
milder  methods  and  more  constitutional  ways  could 
not  secure.  And  when  the  uglier,  harder  part  of  the 
task  was  done,  they  would  not  reap  the  results,  but 
then  the  more  peaceful  and  patient  would  gather  the 
benefits  of  things  which  were  wild  and  ugly,  but 
which  had  done  an  indispensable  part  of  the  work. 
The  Fenians  failed  at  the  time,  but  they  won  the 
attention  of  the  British  people  at  last,  and  they  got 
it  as  the  British  government  was  about  to  become 


THE  FAMINE  AND  THE  FENIANS     155 

more  democratic,  liberal,  and  sympathetic.  What 
the  Fenians  did  we  condemn  in  itself,  and  it  had  to  be 
sternly  repressed;  but  it  arose  out  of  evil  conditions, 
and  something  of  what  they  did  brought  those  condi- 
tions to  an  end. 


PART  II 

THE  NEW  AGE:  ATONEMENT  AND 
REDRESS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   BEGINNING   OF   A   NEW   SPIRIT 

The  genius  of  the  British  Empire  is  an  emanation  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Evil  One. 

Patrick  Ford,  The  Criminal  History  of  the  Brit- 
ish Empire  (New  York,  1881),  p.  1. 

This  Commonwealth  to  which  we  belong  is  no  "Empire  of 
Hell":  it  is,  to  all  whose  eyes  are  not  obscured  by  pas- 
sion, a  living  home  of  divine  freedom,  in  which  the  ends  of 
the  earth  are  knit  together  not  for  profit,  and  not  for  power, 
but  in  the  name  and  the  hope  of  self-government. 

Ernest  Barker,  Ireland  in  the  Last  Fifty  Years 
(Oxford,  1917),  pp.  104,  105. 

THE  history  of  England  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  concerned  with  the  growth  and  consoli- 
dation of  the  British  Empire,  and,  what  is  perhaps 
more  important,  with  the  increasing  liberalism  of  the 
government  and  the  gradual  getting  control  of  the 
government  by  the  mass  of  the  people,  who  have  in 
the  course  of  years  slowly  altered  much  of  the  char- 
acter of  British  institutions,  and  transformed  the  gov- 
ernment of  Great  Britain  from  an  aristocratic  oli- 
garchy, with  power  in  the  hands  of  the  great,  into  a 
wise  and  conservative  democracy  supporting  repre- 
sentatives elected  by  the  people.  During  this  time 
the  old  British  Empire  was  changed  into  a  common- 
wealth of  nations,  mostly  held  together  by  mutual 

159 


160          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ties  of  interest  and  good  will.  This  process  was  not 
altogether  complete  at  the  beginning  of  the  recent 
war,  Ireland  being  one  of  the  exceptions ;  but  a  great 
and  wondrous  part  of  the  mighty  task  was  performed, 
and  performed  in  such  manner  that  by  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth  century  one  of  the  things  which  held 
most  promise  for  the  future  well-being  of  the  world 
was  the  continuation  of  the  practical,  liberal,  and 
humane  work  of  the  British  people  and  the  security 
of  their  commonwealth  scattered  in  every  part  of  the 
earth. 

Among  the  noisome  things  which  have  appeared  in 
the  recent  terrible  years  nothing  has  more  grieved 
those  who  first  chanced  upon  it  than  bitter  condemna- 
tion of  England  and  the  harsh  slandering  of  her  his- 
tory in  the  past.  Hereafter  I  shall  have  to  notice 
the  silly  and  immoderate  sayings  of  vehement  Irish 
recalcitrants  with  respect  to  Germany  and  England 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  which,  in  so  far  as  they 
were  not  inspired  by  German  propaganda,  were 
largely  the  result  of  inheritance  from  an  evil  time 
gone  by,  still  remaining  so  deep  and  so  bitter  as  not 
to  permit  men  to  see  the  changes  come  to  pass.  In 
the  future  these  sayings  may  often  bring  repentance 
and  shame.  But  many  of  the  wild  and  unjust  state- 
ments made  by  Irishmen  and  Irish-Americans  in  the 
first  years  of  the  war,  when  they  did  not  come  from 
memories  of  the  great  famine  and  old  miseries  of 
eviction  and  flight,  were  actually  based  upon  the 
teachings  of  extreme  nationalist  German  historians 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     161 

and  pamphleteers,  who  magnified  the  excellence  of 
Germany  and  distorted  the  evil  of  her  opponents,  and 
who,  seeing  in  England  the  greatest  rival  of  Ger- 
many, dealt  with  her  most  hardly  of  all. 

England  had  been  cold,  greedy,  calculating,  and 
cruel  in  the  past,  said  Treitschke,  the  most  forceful  of 
these  writers;  her  government  a  selfish  oligarchy  op- 
pressing the  body  of  the  people,  her  parliament  a 
sham,  an  assembly  merely  for  the  upper  classes; 
greedy,  grasping,  imperialist,  taking  from  others  that 
which  they  held,  getting  and  gaining  not  through  ex- 
cellence or  superiority  but  through  the  accident  of 
mere  geographical  position,  luck,  and  chance;  always 
profiting  by  the  quarrels  of  others  to  take  their  pos- 
sessions away;  oppressive  to  those  whom  she  ruled, 
debasing  in  influence  upon  other  peoples ;  an  obstacle, 
a  burden  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  And  after  these 
sayings  had  been  echoed  and  increased  by  a  swarm  of 
pettier  followers,  there  came  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  war  a  writer  who  in  better  days  had  achieved  some 
renown  for  his  studies  in  contemporary  diplomatic 
history,  but  who  now  went  through  that  terrible  trans- 
formation which  affected  so  many  Germans  in  1914, 
and  casting  away  calmness  and  critical  acumen,  wrote 
onlywith  mind  distorted  by  passion  and  distended  with 
the  heat  of  unreason.  England,  said  Count  zu  Re- 
ventlow,  had  been  a  robber  nation  from  the  beginning 
of  the  period  of  her  greatness,  and  her  wicked  deeds 
had  been  more  distasteful  through  canting  and  hypo- 
critical assumption  of  righteous  demeanor.  Because 


162    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  position  and  circumstances  this  inferior  but  fortu- 
nate nation  was  able  to  destroy  the  prosperity  of  her 
rivals.  To  accomplish  this  always  she  had  sided  with 
one  against  the  other.  So  she  removed  from  her  way 
Spain,  then  Holland,  then  France.  Napoleon  strove 
against  this  incubus  pressing  on  Europe,  but  after 
the  greatest  of  her  contests  she  conquered.  And  she 
deliberately  prolonged  wars  when  she  could,  that  both 
enemies  and  friends  might  be  the  more  weakened,  and 
she  be  more  able  to  draw  out  her  profit.  In  the  lat- 
ter years  she  had  wanted  peace  and  quiet  while  she 
kept  the  spoil.  And  the  present  war  came,  he  went 
on  to  say,  because  a  free  and  splendid  Germany  would 
resist  this  hateful  dominion.  Now  England  would 
strangle  her  as  she  had  others  before:  England  the 
vampire.  This  book,  said  the  translator,  who  wrote 
with  a  passionate  wildness  for  Ireland's  cause,  "can- 
not be  too  strongly  recommended  to  all  those  who  de- 
sire to  obtain  an  insight  into  the  hidden  recesses  of 
European  political  history.  .  .  .  Founded  on  piracy, 
the  British  Empire  has  been  built  up  at  the  expense 
of  humanity.  .  .  .  Germany,  in  fighting  for  her  own 
existence,  is  fighting  also  for  the  liberation  of  the 
world."  l  Such  statements  might  be  lightly  dismissed 
were  it  not  that  in  less  extreme  form  they  have  been 
widely  diffused  and  repeated  by  persons  of  slender 
judgment  and  slight  understanding. 

Few  things  are  so  lightly  attempted  and  so  hardly 

i  Count  Ernst  zu  Reventlow,  The  Vampire  of  the  Continent  (trans- 
lated with  a  preface  by  G.  Chatterton-Hill,  2d  ed.,  New  York,  1917), 
pp.  v,  vii,  x. 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     163 

accomplished  as  surveying  the  history  of  a  nation, 
comparing  it  with  the  histories  of  other  peoples,  and 
judging  about  relative  merits.  Without  a  knowledge 
of  innumerable  details  and  great  masses  of  informa- 
tion, such  judgment  is  impossible;  and  even  having 
them  in  mind  the  difficulty  of  looking  over  all  the  data 
together  is  nearly  as  formidable;  while  in  any  event 
the  critic  is  certain  to  give  to  his  estimate  something 
of  preconceived  bias  or  prejudice  long  since  acquired. 
But  I  believe  it  is  now  the  deliberate  judgment  of 
most  of  our  people,  and  to  this  conclusion  they  came 
instinctively  and  quietly  when  these  last  great  years 
forced  them  to  think  of  it  all — that  with  the  exception 
of  France,  perhaps,  there  is  no  people  in  medieval 
and  modern  times  which  has  developed  so  finely  as 
the  English  or  contributed  richer  gifts  to  mankind. 
Certainly  there  have  been  many  faults,  and  many 
stupid  and  brutal  things  of  which  Englishmen  now 
are  ashamed;  but  judging  things  in  relation  to  the 
time  when  they  occurred — which  is  usually  not  done 
in  propaganda  or  abuse- — and  considering  them  in 
comparison  with  contemporary  things  in  other  lands, 
England  has  right  to  be  proud  of  her  past. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  history  of  England  is  not 
greatly  different  from  that  of  other  lands  nearby,  ex- 
cept that  circumstances  of  position  made  it  possible 
for  England,  sooner  than  any  other  nation  in  wes- 
tern Europe,  to  erect  a  capable  central  government 
strong  enough  to  keep  order  and  able  to  get  for  the 
upper  classes  a  large  measure  of  prosperity  and  com- 


164    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

fort.  Hardly  anywhere  in  these  times  were  the 
lower  classes  so  much  as  considered,  as  long  as  they 
obeyed  their  masters  and  bore  the  burdens  put  on 
them.  During  these  early  times  there  arose  in  Eng- 
land a  respect  for  the  law,  and  a  habit  of  thinking 
that  all  men  in  the  state  were  subject  to  the  law,  so 
that  even  then  there  were  some  safeguards  for  all 
classes  which  scarcely  existed  elsewhere  in  Europe. 

In  the  age  of  discovery  and  colonization  English- 
men took  a  belated,  but  at  last  a  very  successful,  part, 
much  in  the  manner  of  the  others.  Through  the  pe- 
riod of  the  Reformation  they  passed  without  religious 
war,  which  ruined  Germany  and  tore  apart  France, 
and  with  not  much  of  the  drastic  and  terrible  perse- 
cution which  stamped  out  heresy  in  Italy,  Portugal, 
and  Spain.  There  was  persecution,  and  there  were 
religious  discriminations  which  seem  now  intolerable, 
but  in  former  times  so  there  were  in  almost  all  places. 
In  Poland  and  Austria  and  Spain  the  Protestants 
disappeared;  in  England  the  Catholics  lived  under 
some  oppression  and  bad  discrimination,  but  survived 
easily  to  get  full  rights  and  be  a  vigorous  minority 
when  better  times  came;  and  even  in  Ireland,  where 
the  penal  laws  against  Catholics  were  more  terrible, 
Catholics  continued  to  be  the  great  majority  of  the 
people.  "This  was  not  a  persecution,"  says  Lecky, 
"like  that  which  extirpated,  by  the  death  of  fire,  Prot- 
testantism  and  Judaism  from  Spain,  nor  was  it  en- 
forced in  the  same  stringent  severity  with  which  all- 
Profestaht  worship  was  forbidden  and1  suppressed  in" 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     165 

other  Catholic  countries  of  Europe  and  America."  2 
England  did  not  crush  out  the  religion  of  the  Irish. 
What  made  it  so  intolerable  was  that  in  Ireland  it  was 
discrimination  by  a  minority  of  the  population  against 
the  majority  in  the  country. 

In  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  Ire- 
land, England,  and  Scotland  were  all  of  them  lands 
of  privilege  for  the  few  and  the  great,  with  little 
power  and  opportunity  for  most  of  the  people.  The 
poor  and  the  humble  did  not  easily  rise  in  life;  not 
many  could  vote;  the  government  was  a  monarchy 
where  the  crown  had  lost  its  power,  partly,  to  an  aris- 
tocracy and  a  parliament  which  consisted  of  the  great 
prelates  and  lords,  and  their  appointees  in  the  House 
of  Commons;  there  was  privilege  for  the  great,  and 
subjection  and  depression  for  the  many.  Laws  were 
made  by  the  upper  classes,  and  made  in  behalf  of  their 
vested  interests.  Nor  was  it  possible  for  common 
men  and  women  to  improve  their  position,  for  they 
had  no  direct  influence  over  the  government  and  no 
part  in  it,  and  they  were  not  permitted  to  organize  in 
associations  or  unions,  which  nowadays  help  them  so 
much.  Education  was  largely  monopolized  by  the 
aristocrats  and  the  well-to-do. 

Not  to  speak  of  Irishmen,  then,  most  Englishmen 
and  Scotchmen  in  the  period  1600-1800  had  a  posi- 
tion which  would  arouse  the  strongest  indignation 
and  disgust  in  their  descendants  at  present.  They 
lived  in  a  time  when  kindliness  and  humanity  were 

2  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,  i.  15. 


166    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

much  less  widely  diffused  than  at  present,  and  when 
notions  of  democracy  and  the  rights  of  man  were 
little  known  or  rigorously  repressed.  The  world  was 
filled  with  prejudice,  with  established  religions,  with 
divine  right  and  privilege  of  class.  The  government 
was  by  noblemen  and  landlords;  property,  political 
privilege,  opportunity  were  monopolized  by  a  few. 
For  the  many  there  were  obedience,  submission,  re- 
spect; simple  and  sturdy  living  at  best,  long  hours, 
hard  labor,  low  wages,  meager  living  as  a  rule.  Con- 
ditions in  Great  Britain  were  much  better  than  in  Ire- 
land; but  it  was  not  so  long  since  the  last  of  serf- 
dom had  disappeared  in  England,  and  some  of  the 
people  of  Scotland  were  held  virtually  as  slaves  into 
the  eighteenth  century.  If  there  were  absentee  land- 
lords for  Ireland,  there  were  resident  landlords  in  Brit- 
ain, who  might  have  more  concern  for  their  tenants, 
but  who  lived  upon  the  tenants  and  took  much  of 
what  they  got  from  the  soil.  If  there  were  evictions 
and  enclosures  in  Ireland,  there  was  a  long  and  dreary 
record  of  enclosure  in  England.  If  Catholics  and 
Presbyterians  were  held  inferior  to  Episcopalians  in 
Ireland,  so  they  were  also  in  England. 

It  is  true  that  after  a  while  great  changes  took  place 
which  were  to  modify  profoundly  for  the  better  the 
position  of  the  ordinary  man.  Chief  among  them 
were  the  effects  of  the  industrial  revolution.  But 
these  very  things  operated  at  first  mostly  to  depress 
the  condition  of  the  common  man  further  still.  Cap- 
ialists,  getting  the  new  and  costly  machines  of  the 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     167 

epoch  into  their  exclusive  possession,  were  able  to  con- 
trol in  a  manner  undreamed  of  before  the  toilers  who 
worked  for  them.  Horrible  indeed  were  the  details 
afterwards  described  by  reformers  and  parliamentary 
Commissions:  children  of  tender  years  working  from 
dawn  until  dark,  women  naked  and  covered  with  sweat 
dragging  cars  through  the  chambers  of  coal  mines, 
men  toiling  with  fetters  to  keep  them  at  their  place; 
people  working  for  a  pittance  in  the  midst  of  hunger, 
ignorance,  filth,  and  despair,  with  body  and  soul 
stunted  and  destroyed.  And  if  one  pauses  now  and 
asks  how  such  things  could  be,  the  answer  is  that  for- 
merly when  systems  changed  and  conditions  were 
new,  men  and  women  were  taken  advantage  of  more 
than  now,  for  there  were  everywhere  more  ignorance, 
brutality,  coldness  of  heart,  less  humanitarianism, 
sympathy,  and  regard  for  the  happiness  of  other  peo- 
ple than  is  now  the  case  in  the  better  parts  of  the 
world.  A  great  deal  of  the  evil  and  oppression  done 
by  England  in  Ireland  during  those  times  will  never 
be  properly  understood  now,  unless  the  misdeeds  are 
considered  in  relation  to  the  time  when  they  were 
done. 

But  if  the  evil  in  Ireland  resulted  partly  from  con- 
ditions in  England  then,  and  if  Englishmen  had 
far  worse  lot  than  their  sons  have  now,  one  has  only 
to  turn  to  other  places  then  to  see  how  much  she  was 
in  advance,  and  how  much  better  was  the  position  of 
Englishmen  than  that  of  neighboring  peoples.  In  the 
Netherlands,  in  parts  of  Switzerland,  and  in  the 


168    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

American  colonies  there  were  exceptional  conditions. 
In  France  the  people  were  better  off  than  those  of 
any  other  large  state  on  the  Continent,  but  how  great 
were  the  inequalities,  how  large  the  abuses,  and  how 
little  the  protection  of  the  law,  are  known  from  the 
cahiers  of  1789;  and  these  old  conditions  brought 
France  to  the  violence  of  a  great  revolution.  There 
the  government  was  autocratic  and  absolute,  with  the 
will  of  the  prince  the  fountain  of  law;  there  noble- 
men and  prelates  were  much  farther  above  the  middle 
classes  than  in  England;  and  the  condition  of  the 
mass  of  the  people  very  much  worse.  Absolutism  in 
government,  complete  intolerance  in  the  religious  sys- 
tem, crushing  burdens  upon  the  peasantry,  rigid  class 
distinction,  abasement  of  the  lower  classes,  these 
things  were  far  worse  than  in  Britain.  In  the  Ger- 
manic countries,  so  backward  as  compared  with  Eng- 
land and  France,  the  princes  made  themselves  abso- 
lute, copying  in  dull  and  brutal  way  the  greatness 
and  magnificence  of  France.  Everywhere  there  was 
a  torpor  of  ignorance  and  economic  depression.  The 
people,  very  largely  still  serfs,  were  voiceless  in  poli- 
tics, and  helpless  in  the  ordering  of  affairs.  The  lord, 
whether  prince  or  knight,  was  supreme ;  the  state  offi- 
cials were  his  domestic  servants.  The  money  wrung 
from  the  ignorant  and  impoverished  peasants  was 
wasted  in  ostentatious  extravagance  or  employed  in 
creating  military  establishments.  Culture  was  de- 
clining, liberties  were  forgotten,  and  the  condition  of 
the  people  was  so  low  that  their  complaints  and  pro- 


tests  scarce  reach  us.  To  the  east  and  the  south  in 
Europe  the  picture  is  drearier  still.  During  all  this 
time  the  leaders  of  the  world  were  England  and 
France,  with  the  commonwealths  of  America  rising 
up  in  the  fullness  of  crude,  youthful  vigor  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  examine  the  statements 
of  them  who  declare  that  the  history  of  the  British 
Empire  is  a  record  of  unscrupulous  greed  and  selfish 
commercial  expansion,  that  its  greatness  has  come 
from  profiting  by  the  calamities  of  others,  that  its  suc- 
cess is  through  luck  and  hazard,  not  because  of  merit 
and  desert;  that  other  nations  gave  themselves  to 
tasks  for  the  permanent  benefit  of  the  human  race, 
while  Englishmen  seldom  rose  above  sordid  pursuit 
of  industrial  benefit  and  commercial  gain. 

That  England  is  foremost  in  commerce  is  due 
partly  to  her  insular  position  at  the  end  of  Europe, 
right  by  some  of  the  greatest  trade-routes  of  the 
world.  That  she  obtained  industrial  pre-eminence 
was  owing  to  the  inventiveness  of  her  artisans,  and  to 
skilful  utilization  of  her  resources  of  iron  and  coal, 
which  other  nations  did  not  have  or  did  not  develop. 
That  the  British  Empire  is  largely  an  aggregation 
more  the  result  of  chance  than  design  is  certainly  true ; 
but  so  was  the  Spanish  and  so  was  the  Roman.  The 
French  colonial  empire  of  the  eighteenth  century,  so 
brilliantly  conceived  and  so  finely  extended,  has  long 
since  fallen  to  pieces;  the  modern  German  world-em- 
pire, planned  out,  it  would  seem,  in  all  its  details, 


170    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

has  caused  unutterable  suffering  and  horror,  and  has 
also  just  fallen  to  pieces;  but  the  wide,  loose  empire 
of  the  British  has  not  perished  like  the  French  of  the 
old  regime,  or  gone  like  the  Spanish  slowly  in  torpor 
and  decay,  because  its  possessors  have  remained  vig- 
orous and  sound,  and  have  also  been  the  ablest,  and 
the  most  liberal  colonial  administrators  that  the  world 
ever  has  seen.  It  is  their  proud  distinction  to  have 
carried  freedom  and  self-government  in  all  direc- 
tions; and,  with  the  striking  exception  of  Ireland, 
where  the  circumstances  were  peculiar  and  where 
Englishmen  were  more  stupid  and  unfortunate  than 
usual,  to  have  brought  better  government  wherever 
they  came.  The  proof  of  this  was  seen  in  the  glor- 
ious assistance  of  the  dominions,  voluntary  and  splen- 
did, when  the  whirlwind  of  the  German  war  came. 

No  doubt  great  advantage  accrued  from  the  misfor- 
tune of  others,  though  it  was  not  because  England 
set  peoples  to  quarrel  that  thus  she  might  steal  their 
goods,  but  mostly  because,  owing  to  fortunate  posi- 
tion, she  was  safe  from  invasion,  and  often  able  to 
stay  out  of  wars.  To  the  United  States  similar  cir- 
cumstances of  position  have  in  the  past  hundred  years 
been  of  greater  benefit  still.  And  the  history  of  di- 
plomacy in  the  period  in  which  England  is  most  con- 
demned shows  that  she  tried  to  maintain  the  balance 
of  power,  which  at  one  time  or  another  Germany, 
France,  or  Spain  tried  to  destroy,  but  which  generally 
they  also  desired  to  preserve. 

Very  false  it  is  to  say  that  English  efforts  have 


been  sordid  and  barren  of  good  to  others.  It  was  the 
favorite  device  of  a  certain  school  of  writers  to  pro- 
claim that  while  Germany  gave  all  of  herself  to  re- 
ligious reform  and  the  creation  of  philosophy  and 
music,  England,  dull  and  greedy,  sought  only  for 
lands  and  for  wealth.  The  German  Reformation  was 
indeed  one  of  the  greatest  of  things,  but  the  system  of 
Luther  was  almost  as  narrow  and  rigid  as  the  older 
system  from  which  it  diverged,  and  religious  freedom 
developed  in  most  places  gradually  as  time  brought 
enlightenment  and  liberalism,  progress  being  at  least 
as  great  in  France  as  in  Germany,  and  the  most  fruit- 
ful results  arising  in  the  Netherlands,  in  Geneva,  in 
British  lands,  and  wherever  non-conformists  have 
dwelt.  The  religious  wars  which  followed  the  Re- 
formation in  Germany  brought  long-time  ruin,  from 
which  England  escaped  almost  entirely  through  com- 
parative moderation  and  patience  of  rulers  and  peo- 
ple. Germany  has  given  to  the  world  its  best  music, 
and,  perhaps,  its  greatest  philosophy  in  modern  times, 
just  as  France  and  Italy  contributed  the  finest  sculp- 
ture and  painting  since  the  Greeks,  and  all  of  them 
have  made  to  literature  rich  and  generous  gift.  It  is 
true  that  England's  attainment  in  music  has  been 
very  slight,  and  her  share  in  philosophy  and  art  of 
minor  importance.  This  is  not  because  Englishmen 
have  developed  merely  the  mercantile  instinct,  or  have 
been  relaxed  in  prosperity  or  indulgence.  Their 
genius  has  been  in  other  things.  Theirs  is  the  great- 
est of  all  modern  literatures,  and  in  modern  times  they 


172    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

have  taught  other  nations  the  art  of  governing  them- 
selves and  governing  well. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  when  political  organiza- 
tion everywhere  tended  to  despotic  centralization  of 
power,  Englishmen  developed  and  defended  their  free 
institutions  of  parliamentary  privilege,  and  equality 
before  the  law,  and  preserved  them  in  the  Puritan 
Civil  Wars,  among  the  noblest  and  best  civil  wars 
which  have  ever  been  fought.  At  this  same  time  a 
small  group  of  men,  the  Independents  of  Cromwell's 
army,  in  advance  of  their  age,  proclaimed  ideas  of  lib- 
erty and  civil  and  religious  equality,  which,  taken  up 
afterwards  by  greater  Frenchmen,  became  the  com- 
mon heritage  of  progressive  mankind.  During  the 
eighteenth  century  enlightened  thinkers  of  Europe, 
like  Montesquieu  and  Voltaire,  looked  to  England  for 
example,  and  some  of  the  best  of  her  ideas,  trans- 
muted by  the  still  more  liberal  and  humane  spirit  of 
France,  were  spread  over  western  and  central  Europe 
after  1789.  There  were  great  faults  in  English  in- 
stitutions then,  as  compared  with  better  things  now, 
but  as  compared  with  the  peoples  nearby  and  with 
almost  all  other  peoples  then,  Englishmen  were 
sturdy,  prosperous,  and  free.  There  was  vigorous 
self-government  in  local  affairs,  even  though  it  also 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  upper  class ;  central  authority, 
with  glaring  defects,  was  yet  limited  and  constitu- 
tional; all  Englishmen  had  habeas  corpus  and  other 
guarantees  of  personal  liberty;  there  was  no  power 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     173 

in  the  state  above  the  common  law;  there  was  no  law 
to  permit  the  use  of  torture,  and  very  seldom  was  tor- 
ture employed; — at  a  time  when  almost  everywhere 
governments  were  absolute  and  inefficient,  when  local 
liberty  had  perished,  when  personal  liberty  was  not 
safe  against  noble  or  king  and  men  were  lost  in  the 
Bastille  at  Paris  on  secret  warrant  suddenly  issued, 
when  torture  was  sanctioned  and  not  unusual,  and 
when  the  mass  of  the  people  were  bowed  down  so  low 
that  they  scarcely  had  thought  how  to  rise.  It  should 
always  be  remembered  that  once  the  outlook  for  lib- 
erty, self-government,  and  individualism  in  Europe 
was  dark,  and  that  these  priceless  things  have  come 
down  to  us  largely  because  they  were  defended  and 
kept  by  Cromwell  and  his  fellows,  in  the  era  when 
Spain  was  sinking  into  mental  and  moral  decay,  when 
Germany  was  paralyzed  by  religious  strife  selfish 
and  horrible,  when  in  France  all  energy  was  being 
given  to  aggrandize  the  king,  and  when  civil  and 
religious  liberty  were  gone.  We  share  now  the  in- 
heritance from  that  period — we  Americans  have  had 
part  in  developing  it. 

The  great  and  fine  things  which  Englishmen  have 
done  in  government  and  politics  have  been  copied  and 
imitated  all  over  the  world,  as  nations  becoming  more 
progressive  have  amended  their  government  systems. 
But  freedom  and  right  of  determining  their  own  af- 
fairs have  been  freely  given  by  England  to  the  peo- 
ples who  had  gone  out  from  her  and  are  beginning  to 


174    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

be  given  to  those  who  have  been  brought  within  her 
control.  This  statement  is  very  true,  despite  the  ex- 
ceptions which  start  up  at  once. 

Ireland  is  the  principal  exception;  but  in  the  past 
the  evil  treatment  of  Ireland  has  resulted  from  pe- 
culiar circumstances  and  also  from  methods  and  cus- 
toms once  very  prevalent  in  ages  worse  than  our  own ; 
and  more  recently  it  has  resulted  from  some  stupidity 
and  some  blunders,  something  of  the  continuing  Tory 
spirit  from  the  past,  and  also,  very  largely,  as  I  hope 
to  show,  from  a  combination  of  exceedingly  perplex- 
ing circumstances,  which  England  has  found  it  very 
difficult  to  solve  with  fair  treatment  to  all  the  inter- 
ests concerned,  but  which  she  would  like  to  solve 
justly,  if  she  knew  how. 

Many  Americans  will  think  that  British  treatment 
of  their  forefathers,  in  the  days  when  the  American 
colonies  were  part  of  the  British  domain,  constitutes 
another  striking  exception;  but  no  serious  student  of 
history  believes  that  at  present.  In  the  conflict  of 
ideas  which  led  up  to  the  Revolutionary  War  there 
were  grievances  on  both  sides ;  the  patriots  refused  to 
submit  to  some  things  which  seemed  essentially  wrong 
to  them,  and  the  descendants  of  these  men  and  most 
people  in  Great  Britain  nowadays  rejoice  that  the 
sons  of  freedom  resisted  as  they  did;  but  it  must  be 
said  that  the  British  did  nothing  illegal,  and  that  their 
tyranny,  such  as  it  was,  was  the  lightest  ever  exer- 
cised in  any  colonial  administration  up  to  that  time. 
There  were  restrictions  which  seemed  onerous  to  the 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     175 

colonists,  as  similar  restrictions  seemed  onerous  to 
Irishmen  at  that  very  time,  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  such  things  characterized  the  prevailing  Mercan- 
tile System  everywhere  in  those  days,  and  that  they 
were  exercised  much  more  stringently  by  France  and 
by  Spain,  and  by  other  colonizing  nations.  Against 
this  should  be  put  the  fact  that  the  best  rights  and 
liberties  which  had  been  won  in  England  were 
brought  to  America  by  the  Englishmen  who  emi- 
grated, and  that  generally  the  government  in  Lon- 
don made  no  consistent  effort  to  repress  them.  The 
development  of  liberty  and  self-government  is  a  diffi- 
cult process,  and  that  process  had  been  accompanied 
by  many  disputes  and  uncertainties  in  England  itself ; 
it  was  not  surprising  that  sharper  disputes  should 
have  arisen  in  solving  the  untried  problem  of  exer- 
cising them  in  colonial  dominions  three  thousand  miles 
from  the  central  government  at  a  time  when  the  slow 
and  difficult  communications  of  the  old  regime  still 
prevailed.  After  all,  the  principal  difficulty,  as  we 
see  it  now,  was  not  English  tyranny  or  American 
wrongs,  but  geographical  separation.  The  liberality 
and  careless  indulgence  of  the  British  government  had 
raised  up  a  sturdy  breed  of  men  along  the  Atlantic 
coast,  who  had  new  interests  of  their  own  and  who 
were  ill-disposed  to  brook  even  small  infringements 
upon  what  they  considered  the  rights  of  freemen. 
And  yet — this  has  often  been  forgotten,  when  the 
worst  has  been  said,  it  should  be  remembered  that  in 
the  Revolutionary  period  a  great  minority,  from  a 


176    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

third  to  a  half  of  all  the  population  of  the  colonies, 
many  of  them  the  best,  most  intelligent,  and  most 
prosperous  inhabitants,  refused  to  sanction  separa- 
tion from  England  whom  they  loved  very  well.  Lib- 
eral people  all  over  the  world  now  rejoice  that  the 
Revolutionary  War  made  America  independent  and 
able  to  give  her  peculiar  contribution  to  the  progress 
of  the  world;  but  the  historical  student,  considering 
things  as  they  actually  were,  must  declare  that  as  the 
French  Revolution  began  in  France,  where  people 
were  better  treated  than  almost  anywhere  else  in  Eu- 
rope, so  the  revolt  from  colonial  dominion  began  not 
in  the  French  or  Spanish  colonies,  but  among  the 
Americans  who  were  the  best  treated  colonists  in  the 
world. 

The  lesson  of  the  loss  of  the  American  colonies 
was  not  immediately  taken  to  heart  in  Great  Britain, 
but  as  England  developed  toward  greater  liberalism 
and  some  democracy  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  that  lesson  was  pondered  and  applied. 
How  well  it  was  learned  one  knows  from  the  treat- 
ment of  Canada  in  1840,  when  discontented  rebels 
were  transformed  into  satisfied  citizens  governing 
themselves.  And  this  wise  and  liberal  treatment,  re- 
sulting so  largely  from  the  work  of  Lord  Durham, 
was,  in  the  years  that  passed,  extended  to  the  com- 
munities of  New  Zealand  and  Australia,  and,  more 
memorably  still,  to  the  South  African  Union  also. 
Thus  were  established  all  over  the  world  colonies 
or  dominions  peopled  with  men  and  women  of  the 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     177 

English-speaking  race,  stalwart  and  independent, 
with  the  free  institutions  of  the  mother  land,  and  en- 
tirely in  control  of  their  government. 

There  remain  India  and  Egypt  and  a  host  of  others 
in  the  far-flung  empire,  which  do  not  have  self-govern- 
ment and  not  all  of  the  rights  of  Englishmen  at  home ; 
but  the  problems  in  each  case  are  difficult — except  for 
the  ignorant  and  inexperienced,  who  solve  them  to 
their  satisfaction  at  once.  In  these  countries,  doubt- 
less, there  remains  much  yet  to  be  done,  and  much  that 
the  intelligent  and  educated  of  the  upper  classes  in 
these  countries  are  right  in  desiring  to  have  done ;  but 
when  all  aspects  of  the  situation  are  taken  into  ac- 
count, it  would  seem  that  with  the  exception  of  our 
Philippine  Islands,  there  are  no  dependencies  which 
are  now  administered  so  justly  and  with  so  much  care 
of  the  well-being  of  the  inhabitants  as  the  depend- 
encies like  India  and  Egypt  which  are  under  the  Brit- 
ish flag.  A  considerable  amount  of  self-government 
has  just  been  recommended  for  India,  and  the  process 
will  probably  be  completed  as  soon  as  it  is  possible  to 
do  so. 

These  things  which  we  admire  so  much  and  praise 
so  highly  result  from  the  character  of  the  British  peo- 
ple, often  unattractive  to  strangers,  and  apparently 
unsympathetic  in  some  ways,  but  essentially  just  and 
humane  and  filled  with  sense  of  fairness  and  fair  play. 
They  result  also  from  the  excellent  institutions  which 
Englishmen's  ancestors  worked  out  so  slowly.  The 
greatest  faults  in  British  administration  and  rule  of 


178    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

other  peoples  were  committed  in  the  older  time,  when 
the  spirit  of  things  was  less  wise  and  humane  and 
more  in  the  interests  of  the  few.  During  the  nine- 
teenth century  there  was  constant  liberalization  and 
extension  of  share  in  the  government  in  Great  Brit- 
ain itself,  and  constantly  more  and  more  liberal  treat- 
ment of  most  of  the  people  in  the  other  dominions. 
This  came  not  only  from  the  amelioration  of  char- 
acter which  was  progressing  in  the  most  civilized  coun- 
tries during  this  time,  but  from  the  extension  of  de- 
mocracy based  on  widening  of  the  franchise,  and  the 
more  liberal  and  generous  feeling  which  seems  to  ac- 
company such  extension. 

The  reform  law  of  1832  is  very  memorable  in  the 
history  of  English  development,  for  it  was  the  first 
great  overthrow  of  the  old  aristocratic  and  narrow 
system;  but  actually  it  did  not  greatly  extend  the 
electorate.  The  franchise  which  had  been  before  pos- 
sessed by  one-forty-eighth  of  the  people  and  con- 
trolled by  the  upper  class,  was  now  extended  to  the 
prosperous  middle  class,  and  the  electorate  raised 
from  500,000  to  1,000,000.  In  the  period  which  fol- 
lowed a  great  and  silent  revolution  was  effected  after 
the  English  fashion  without  bloodshed  or  sudden  over- 
turning. All  sorts  of  great  reforms  were  made  in 
the  interests  of  classes  neglected  and  oppressed.  But 
a  great  deal  remained  to  be  done.  The  government 
of  England  was  by  no  means  a  democracy,  and  the 
spirit,  if  more  liberal,  was  not  yet  democratic.  The 
great  change  really  comes  after  the  middle  of  the 


BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  SPIRIT     179 

nineteenth  century.  In  1867  was  passed  the  second 
of  the  electoral  reform  laws,  as  a  result  of  which  part 
of  the  lower  class,  the  artisans  of  the  towns,  were  given 
the  vote;  1,000,000  new  voters  were  added,  so  that  the 
franchise  was  now  possessed  by  2,500,000  or  one- 
twelfth  of  the  people.  The  work  was  further  ex- 
tended in  1884,  when  the  franchise  was  largely  given 
to  the  agricultural  workers  and  the  laborers  in  the 
mines;  2,000,000  were  added,  and  5,000,000  had  the 
franchise,  or  one  out  of  every  seven.  How  the  fran- 
chise was  extended  still  further  in  1918  to  2,000,000 
more  men  and  6,000,000  women,  making  the  electo- 
rate 16,000,000,  or  one  for  each  three  of  the  entire 
population,  is  an  occurrence  so  recent  that  its  effects 
cannot  yet  be  measured;  but  the  results  of  the  re- 
forms of  1867  and  1884,  and  of  the  great  measures 
which  were  thereafter  passed  in  consequence  of  the 
new  forces  which  had  entered  into  English  gover- 
nance can  be  clearly  discerned  in  their  larger  aspects 
now.  Down  to  1832  the  spirit  of  England  had  been 
largely  aristocratic  and  exclusive,  though  strongly  in- 
fluenced by  great  mercantile  and  commercial  inter- 
ests; from  that  year  to  1867  the  aristocratic  spirit  was 
affected  to  a  considerable  extent  by  the  power  of  the 
middle  class,  the  men  of  business,  the  English  bour- 
geoisie; since  1867  and  1884  gradually  the  spirit  of 
both  these  forces,  though  they  have  persisted,  as  they 
do  everywhere  else  with  considerable  power,  has  been 
slowly  withdrawing  into  the  background  before  the 
rising  spirit  of  democracy,  until  at  last  the  English 


180    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

people  and  the  English  government  constitute  one  of 
the  greatest  and  best  democracies  in  the  world. 

In  this  last,  this  democratic  phase  of  their  history, 
the  English  people  have  become  more  liberal  and  sym- 
pathetic, less  exclusive  and  less  imperialistic,  they 
have  reached  out  hands  to  the  other  great  democracies 
of  the  world,  they  have  wished  to  make  conditions  bet- 
ter in  all  places,  and  they  have  desired  to  do  justice 
to  all  men.  They  have  not  always  succeeded,  even 
as  well  as  they  intended,  and  they  have  not  always 
understood  what  were  the  tasks  to  be  dealt  with. 
But  is  that  not  the  case  with  all  the  best  peoples? 
They  all  have  their  problems — time  and  experience 
and  wisdom  and  patience  are  needed  for  solution.  In 
most  laudable  manner  the  British  people  have  suc- 
ceeded in  the  great  tasks  which  they  undertook  both 
at  home  and  abroad;  and  they  have  set  themselves 
resolutely  to  the  greater  fulfilment  of  these  tasks  in 
the  future.  Perhaps  their  most  conspicuous  failure 
has  been  with  respect  to  Ireland.  It  is  the  purpose  of 
this  part  of  my  writing  to  show  some  of  the  efforts 
which  have  been  made,  explain  some  of  the  very  great 
difficulties  encountered,  and  show  why  on  the  whole  a 
dolorous  failure  continues. 


The  Irish  Church  had  been  established  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  prosecuting  the  English   cause.     It  embodied   and 
symbolized  the  alien  domination.   ...  In   the  language  of 
John   Bright  .  .   .  every   clergyman   "is   necessarily   in   his 
district  a  symbol  of  the  supremacy  of  the  few  and  of  the 
subjection  of  the  many."     In  its  presence  every   Catholic 
Irishman  felt  himself  a  member  of  a  conquered  race.  .  .   . 
W.  L.  Blease,  A  Short  History  of  English  Lib- 
eralism (New  York,  1913),  p.  249. 

THE  three  great  grievances  which  Irishmen  had 
remaining  in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  were  the  existence  of  the  Established  Church 
of  Ireland,  the  land  situation,  and  the  system  of  gov- 
ernment, which  caused  them  to  be  managed,  they 
thought,  through  the  government  of  another  country 
and  denied  them  the  right  of  managing  their  affairs 
themselves.  The  first  of  these  matters  was  soon  set- 
tled, the  settlement  belonging  rather  to  the  older  pe- 
riod of  the  history  of  Ireland.  The  second  was  dealt 
with  in  unsatisfactory  and  partial  manner  at  first, 
but  later  so  well  that  by  1914  the  Irish  land  question 
might  be  regarded  as  virtually  settled,  and  settled  in 
such  happy  way  that  a  prosperous  and  contented  Ire- 
land was  being  created.  Changing  the  Irish  govern- 

181 


182    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ment  was  the  subject  of  memorable  struggles  for  two 
generations,  until  at  last  the  matter  seemed  about  to 
be  settled  also,  despite  the  most  bitter  opposition  and 
dissension,  but  the  outbreak  of  the  war  involved  de- 
lay, and  following  events  brought  so  much  confusion 
that  for  the  present  the  outcome  can  only  be  hoped 
for  and  conjectured. 

A  beginning  had  been  made  with  the  land  question 
when  the  religious  question  was  taken  up,  but  the 
matter  of  the  church  was  vigorously  dealt  with  and 
settled  long  before  the  others  had  been  more  than 
touched,  so  that  it  claims  here  first  place  in  discus- 
sion. 

The  religious  establishment  in  Ireland  was  one  of 
the  general  results  of  the  Reformation.  Where  Ca- 
tholicism remained  triumphant  in  Europe  Catholicism 
continued  to  be  the  state  religion;  where  some  one  of 
the  Protestant  forms  came  to  be  preponderant,  it  was 
usually  established  by  the  state.  Thus  in  England 
during  the  sixteenth  century  the  acts  of  uniformity 
established  the  Episcopal  or  Anglican  form  of  re- 
ligion as  the  faith  of  the  English  people,  subordinate 
to  the  government,  protected  by  it,  prescribed  to  all 
the  people,  and  supported  by  revenues  assigned  to 
it  as  property  of  the  church.  In  England  this  re- 
ligion came  to  be  professed  by  the  great  majority  of 
the  people,  though  there  were  always  considerable 
bodies  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  dissenters  who  re- 
mained outside  the  established  church  and  had  im- 
posed on  them  disabilities  and  disqualifications.  The 


DISESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHURCH     183 

Episcopal  church  was  also  established  by  the  English 
conquerors  as  the  Church  of  Ireland,  similarly  pro- 
tected by  the  government  and  supported  by  property 
allotted  to  it,  a  great  part  of  its  revenue  being  as  in 
England  in  the  form  of  tithes  collected  from  the  peo- 
ple. But  the  Episcopalian  church  never  won  to  it- 
self more  than  a  small  minority  of  the  Irish,  so  that 
in  Ireland  a  few  possessed  privilege  and  power  in 
church  as  well  as  in  state  affairs.  In  1861  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country  was  something  less  than  six 
millions;  the  members  of  the  Established  Church  not 
quite  seven  hundred  thousand,  less  than  one-eighth 
of  the  total  number.  There  were  numerous  Angli- 
cans about  Dublin  or  near  the  east  coast,  but  in  many 
Catholic  districts  there  were  Anglican  benefices  with 
only  a  handful  of  church  members,  and  there  were  a 
few  which  had  only  one  member  apiece.  Yet  the  net 
revenue  of  the  church  was  more  than  six  hundred 
thousand  pounds  sterling.  That  is  to  say,  the  church 
of  the  small  minority  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland, 
and  they  the  most  prosperous  ones,  received  a  huge 
annual  subsidy,  while  the  rest  of  the  people  provided 
for  their  religion  as  best  they  could.  It  is  true,  the 
situation  was  not  so  bad  as  it  once  had  been,  when 
Catholics  and  dissenters  had  not  only  to  support  their 
own  religions  but  make  direct  payment  to  support  the 
Anglican  system  which  they  hated.  Nevertheless  the 
established  and  endowed  Church  of  Ireland  afforded 
the  most  striking  grievance  in  the  island  at  this  time 
in  the  minds  of  a  great  many  people.  Actually  by 


184    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

this  time  it  had  come  to  be  an  endowed  party  rather 
than  an  endowed  religion.  Its  ministers  took  part  in 
politics:  they  had  opposed  Catholic  emancipation; 
they  opposed  tenant  right;  they  were  ever  with  the 
reactionary  elements  of  the  state. 

The  passing  of  conservative  statesmen,  and  the  new 
spirit  which  made  possible  the  reform  law  of  1867, 
foreboded  a  change.  It  was  evident,  since  1865,  that 
Gladstone  was  preparing  to  support  disestablishment. 
Accordingly  a  great  controversy  began  in  which 
pamphlets  were  published  as  numerous  as  those  of 
the  Home  Rule  struggles.  The  controversy  was 
bitter;  the  defence  was  earnest.  The  advocates  and 
beneficiaries  came  forward  with  all  the  zeal  which  is 
ever  displayed  by  the  hide-bound  and  conservative, 
and  especially  by  earnest  men  who  see  their  vested  in- 
terests threatened.  It  could  no  longer  be  maintained 
that  the  Established  Church  was  obtaining  converts, 
and  so,  from  the  Protestant  point  of  view,  bringing  the 
blessings  of  a  true  religion  to  the  island;  but  it  was 
contended  that  the  Church  now  existed  of  right,  and 
that  disestablishment  and  disendowment  would  be 
confiscation  and  theft ;  that  the  cause  of  Protestantism 
was  at  stake;  that  with  the  fate  of  the  Church  of  Ire- 
land that  of  the  Church  of  England  was  involved; 
that  while  Episcopalianism  was  in  Ireland  the  church 
of  a  minority,  it  was  all  the  more  necessary  to  main- 
tain it  on  the  footing  which  it  possessed,  and  that  while 
its  members  were  in  the  minority  with  respect  to 
Ireland,  yet  British  and  Irish  were  all  citizens  of  the 


DISESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHURCH     185 

United  Kingdom,  in  which  the  majority  of  the  in- 
habitants were  members  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
The  Church  should  be  maintained,  its  advocates  said, 
because  its  doctrines  were  true,  while  those  of  the 
Catholic  church  were  false.  Its  cause  was  identified 
with  the  British  constitution  and  the  rights  of  prop- 
erty. The  destruction  of  the  Church  of  Ireland 
would  be  the  destroying  of  an  essential  and  funda- 
mental part  of  the  Act  of  Union.  These  arguments 
have  been  largely  forgotten  now,  but  'they  continue  to 
be  interesting  because  many  of  them  are  similiar,  in 
character  at  least,  to  some  which  were  repeatedly 
urged  during  the  Home  Rule  controversies  of  recent 
years.  Religious  passion  was  played  upon  and 
aroused,  and  one  speaker  declared  that  if  unholy 
hands  were  laid  upon  the  church,  200,000  Orangemen 
would  stand  forth  to  defend  it.  Some,  more  practi- 
cal and  moderate,  favored  the  endowment  of  other 
religions  in  Ireland.  One  statesman  believed  that 
there  should  be  grants  by  the  government  to  Catholics 
and  to  Presbyterians,  and  that  the  revenues  of  the 
Episcopalians  should  be  reduced  to  about  one-eighth 
of  what  they  were.  But  the  Irish  Catholics  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  such  a  scheme ;  and  it  was  seen 
that  matters  had  gone  too  far  for  any  compromise  to 
be  accepted. 

In  1869,  after  a  general  election,  Gladstone  intro- 
duced a  bill  for  the  disestablishment  and  disendow- 
ment  of  the  Church  of  Ireland.  It  passed  the  Com- 
mons easily,  but  the  Lords  strove  to  defeat  its  pur- 


186          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

pose  by  amendments,  until  at  last  it  was  rumored 
that  new  peers  might  be  created,  as  was  done  in  1712 
to  get  approval  for  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  as  was 
threatened  in  1832  to  secure  the  passage  of  the  elec- 
toral reform  bill,  and  as  was  often  threatened  later 
on  before  the  passage  of  the  Parliament  Act  of  1911. 
But  the  peers  yielded,  as  they  have  usually  done  when 
their  own  privileges  were  directly  threatened,  and  the 
bill  was  enacted  into  a  law  with  very  little  change. 

It  provided  that  after  the  beginning  of  1871  the 
Church  of  Ireland  should  no  longer  be  a  legal  insti- 
tution. The  endowments  of  the  Church  should  be 
taken  away,  though  the  church  buildings  were  to  be 
reserved  for  the  use  of  a  voluntary  Episcopal  organi- 
zation in  Ireland  not  connected  with  the  state.  At 
the  same  time  the  Regium  Donum,  or  gift  first  given 
to  the  Presbyterians  of  Ireland  by  William  of  Orange, 
and  since  that  time  continued,  as  well  as  the  grant 
annually  given  to  the  Catholic  college  at  Maynooth, 
were  to  be  given  no  longer.  Thus  in  Ireland  the 
state  and  the  church  were  to  be  separated.  At  the 
same  time  private  endowments  since  1660  were  to  re- 
main untouched.  The  tithe  rent  charge  of  about 
£9,000,000,  once  collected  from  the  peasants  and  now 
from  the  landlords,  was  to  be  bought  in  by  the  land- 
lords. The  total  property  of  the  Church  was  esti- 
mated at  about  £16,000,000.  With  half  of  this  the 
Episcopal  clergy  were  to  be  provided  for :  they  might 
draw  their  salaries  for  life,  or  receive  a  lump  sum  at 
once.  From  the  remainder,  sums  were  given  to  the 


DISESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHURCH     187 

Presbyterians  and  the  Catholics,  though  most  of  it 
was  to  be  devoted  to  charities  and  worthy  works,  and 
that  has  been  well  done. 

Some  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  denounced  this  law 
as  very  offensive  to  Almighty  God,  and  as  the 
greatest  national  sin  ever  committed.  But  after  the 
thing  was  accomplished,  and  the  passion  of  contro- 
versy spent,  the  results  of  its  operation  were  seen  to 
be  good.  It  was  afterwards  said  that  the  measure 
had  been  drawn  up  with  extraordinary  foresight  and 
skill.  And  in  process  of  time  the  members  of  the 
church  disestablished  reconciled  themselves  to  the  new 
conditions,  and  admitted  that  the  change  had  done 
them  no  lasting  harm.  In  1911  the  Bishop  of 
Limerick,  addressing  the  annual  synod,  at  Tralee, 
said:  "When  Disestablishment  came  40  years  ago 
many  thought  it  would  be  disastrous  to  the  Church. 
AVho  thinks  so  now?" 

i  The  ABC  Home  Rule  Handbook,  p.  33. 


CHAPTER  III 

LAND   LEGISLATION 

Over  one-half  of  Ireland,  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  are  abso- 
lute owners.  ...  In  a  few  short  years  the  whole  of  the 
land  of  Ireland  will  be  free  once  and  for  ever  of  landlordism. 
...  A  few  short  years  and  the  land  question  in  Ireland, 
that  fruitful  source  of  poverty,  starvation,  miser}7,  blood- 
shed and  crime,  will  have  absolutely  passed  away.  And 
with  the  passing  away  of  that  system  will  have  passed  away 
the  chief  cause  which  kept  the  Irish  people  not  only  poverty- 
stricken,  but  enslaved. 

John  Redmond:  speech  at  Detroit,  October  26,  1910. 

ONLY  the  beginning  of  reform  had  been  made; 
and  however  great  the  concession  about  the 
church  may  have  seemed  to  Englishmen,  however 
grievous  the  surrender  may  have  appeared  to  aristo- 
crats and  Episcopalians  in  Ireland,  to  most  Irishmen 
it  seemed  that  very  little  had  been  done,  after  inex- 
cusable delay,  and  that  much  more  must  be  under- 
taken at  once. 

During  the  years  which  followed,  the  history  of 
Ireland  has  to  do  largely  with  two  things:  reform  in 
agrarian  conditions,  and  reform  in  the  Irish  govern- 
ment, with  a  long  series  of  land  laws,  and  repeated 
efforts  for  Home  Rule.  The  more  fundamental  of 
these  things,  the  reform  of  economic  conditions,  which 

188 


LAND  LEGISLATION  189 

in  Ireland  meant  primarily  betterment  of  all  things 
relating  to  the  use  of  the  land,  was  fought  for  by 
Irishmen  in  Ireland,  taken  up  by  Liberals  in  England, 
and  soon  taken  up  also  by  their  opponents,  the  Con- 
servatives, and  in  course  of  time  successfully  dealt 
with.  The  result  constitutes  the  most  important  con- 
structive achievement  in  the  recent  history  of  Ireland. 
In  the  past  forty  years  the  land  of  Ireland,  once  held 
by  the  Irish  in  tribal  law,  and  taken  away  from  the 
people  and  their  chiefs  to  be  held  by  foreign  invaders, 
then  let  to  them  by  alien  or  absentee  landlords  for  ex- 
orbitant rent,  with  gradual  depression  of  the  mass  of 
the  peasants  into  harder  and  more  meager  living  and 
deeper  and  deeper  distress,  with  standard  of  living 
so  lowered  that  birthrate  rose  and  families  increased 
in  size,  as  they  always  do  where  men  and  women  have 
little  or  nothing  to  live  for,  until  the  population  came 
to  be  too  great  for  the  agriculture  on  which  it  de- 
pended, and  until  famine  and  emigration  came  to  take 
away  millions  from  the  unkind  land  of  their  birth — 
this  land,  object  of  passionate  desire  and  ancient 
yearning  on  the  part  of  the  Irish  people,  became  the 
subject  of  laws  made  by  the  British  parliament,  laws 
which  protected  the  tenant,  got  for  him  fairer  rents, 
and  then  provided  money  to  be  loaned  to  the  Irish 
people  on  easy  terms  to  buy  lands  which  the  landlords 
might  be  willing  to  sell,  or  might  be  compelled  to  sell, 
until  now  at  last  most  of  the  land  of  Ireland  is  again 
in  the  hands  of  peasant  proprietors,  the  bulk  of  the 
Irish  people. 


190 

This  legislation,  which  has  already  made  a  new 
Ireland,  and  in  time  to  come  may  perhaps  make  Ire- 
land one  of  the  most  evenly  happy  and  well-to-do 
communities  in  the  world,  has  been  done  quietly  in  the 
main,  and  has  attracted  little  attention  from  people 
outside.  Certainly  it  has  not  been  generally  appre- 
ciated in  the  United  States,  where  far  more  is  known 
about  the  struggle  for  Home  Rule,  the  Sinn  Fein 
rebellion,  and  extreme  Irish  nationalism,  than  about  a 
body  of  constructive  land  legislation,  the  most  notable 
of  its  kind  ever  accomplished.  One  may  assert  that 
it  has  only  given  back  to  Irishmen  what  was  taken 
from  their  fathers,  and  indeed  helped  them  to  pay  for 
what  was  wrongfully  taken  away  from  them  once; 
that  the  English  were  compelled  to  do  it,  and  did  it 
with  bad  grace;  and  it  may  at  once  be  admitted  that 
there  is  truth  in  all  these  contentions.  But  allowing 
for  things  as  they  are  in  this  world,  which  contains 
much  of  evil,  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that 
British  legislation  about  the  land  of  Ireland  is  some 
of  the  wisest  and  kindest  ever  accomplished;  that  it 
will  probably  bring  about  a  body  of  sturdy  and  inde- 
pendent small  proprieters  such  as  there  is  in  France, 
and  such  as  there  certainly  is  not  yet  in  England,  and 
not  even  in  the  United  States;  and  that  with  respect 
to  Great  Britain,  if  it  was  done  sometimes  by  Tories 
with  desire  to  still  Irish  discontent,  in  the  same  man- 
ner that  great  social  reforms  were  given  to  the  Ger- 
man people  by  Bismarck,  yet  it  was  also  done  because 
liberal  England  and  Scotland  sincerely  desired  to 


LAND  LEGISLATION  191 

right  wrongs  once  committed  in  Ireland,  and  make 
the  Irish  people  now  happy  and  contented. 

Ireland  at  the  present  time  is  predominantly  agri- 
cultural and  grazing.  Industries  were  once  estab- 
lished, and  still  flourish  in  some  parts  of  Ulster,  but 
the  former  repressive  policy  of  England,  and,  more 
important,  conditions  of  nature,  have  brought  it  about 
that  most  Irishmen  are  engaged  in  cattle-breeding, 
dairy-farming,  and  the  raising  of  crops.  There  is 
small  profit  in  recalling  a  book  containing  much  that 
is  contemptible  and  silly,  in  which  it  is  asserted  that 
Ireland  possesses  great  resources  for  industrial  de- 
velopment ;  but  some  may  have  chanced  to  notice  with 
interest  its  frontispiece  in  which  Germany,  repre- 
sented as  a  kindly  and  heroic  warrior-woman,  points 
out  to  Ireland,  enraptured  maiden,  the  sun  of  a  new 
era  rising  over  a  splendid  and  mighty  industrial  ac- 
tivity.1 It  may  be  that  through  the  utilization  of 
water-power  Ireland  can  some  time  build  up  an  in- 
dustrialism like  that  which  has  risen  in  Switzerland, 
and  is  even  now  rising  in  Italy  and  Norway,  espe- 
cially if  a  great  body  of  skilled  Irish  artisans  is  ever 
assembled  in  the  various  parts  of  the  island.  It  is 
certain,  however,  that  in  great  part  Ireland's  eco- 
nomic misfortunes,  whether  industrial  or  agricultural, 
are  due  to  natural  causes.  There  is  much  peat  for 
fuel,  but  that  is  far  inferior  to  coal.  Vehement 
writers  who  love  Ireland,  admired  Germany,  and  hate 

i  J.  K.  McGuire,  What  Could  Germany  Do  for  Ireland?  (New  York, 
1916). 


192    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

England,  declare  that  the  island  has  great  store  of 
coal,  but  England  hides  this  from  the  world,  and  dis- 
courages mining  in  Ireland.  I  am  as  unable  to  com- 
ment on  the  alleged  existence  of  Captain  Kidd's 
treasure  in  places  along  our  coast  as  to  decide  this 
matter;  but  it  should  be  said  that  the  official  reports, 
ordinarily  taken  as  credible,  show  that  Ireland  has  as 
little  coal  as  has  most  of  France,  and  that  what  ex- 
ists is  of  low  grade,  in  the  southeastern  part,  while  the 
deposits  of  iron,  which  might  be  worked  with  the 
coal,  are  in  the  extreme  northeast.  And  so  with  re- 
spect to  agriculture.  The  island  is  encircled  by 
mountains  and  hills,  low  enough  to  permit  the  ocean 
winds  to  bring  copious  rains  from  the  Atlantic,  but 
sufficiently  high  to  cause  the  abundant  rainfall  to 
drain  down  to  the  central  parts  rather  than  flow  away 
to  the  sea;  so  that  with  the  two  hundred  or  more 
rainy  days  every  year  not  a  little  of  Ireland  is  marsh 
and  bog,  and  great  stretches  of  the  land  not  suited 
for  tillage.  The  soil  of  Ireland  contains  about 
20,000,000  acres.  One-fourth  of  this  is  waste  of 
mountain  and  bog.  An  eighth  is  meadow  land. 
Half  of  it,  10,000,000  acres,  is  permanent  pasture. 
The  area  under  tillage  is  less  than  an  eighth  of  the 
whole,  about  2,250,000  acres.  "Ireland  is  thus 
marked  out  pre-eminently  as  a  pastoral  country."  2 
Yet,  in  spite  of  natural  difficulties,  it  is  certain  that 
this  condition  is  partly  the  result  of  old  custom  and 
traditional  practice.  At  times  pasturing  has  been 

2  Barker,  p.  41. 


LAND  LEGISLATION  193 

easier  and  cheaper,  and  so  it  has  been  pursued. 
With  modern  conditions  much  of  the  grazing  land 
would  do  better  under  the  plough.  It  is  with  the  re- 
claiming of  this  land,  and  getting  it  into  the  posses- 
sion of  the  peasant  farmers  that  the  future  happiness 
of  Ireland  is  very  largely  involved. 

The  tendency  to  devote  land  to  pasture  and  graz- 
ing rather  than  agriculture,  which  was  so  marked  in 
England  for  some  centuries,  existed  also  in  Ireland 
as  well  as  the  tendency  to  unite  small  into  larger 
holdings.  When  Sir  William  Petty  wrote,  about 
1672,  there  were  11,000,000  acres  of  pasture  and  only 
800,000  acres  of  arable  land.  With  the  great  increase 
of  population  more  land  was  cultivated,  the  peasants 
often  reclaiming  it  from  bog  and  waste,  until  shortly 
after  the  great  famine  the  arable  land  was  about 
4,500,000  acres.  A  great  deal  of  this  was  in  small 
holdings,  wretchedly  cultivated,  and  barely  yielding 
a  subsistence,  to  those  who  lived  upon  it.  But  new 
methods  were  being  successfully  applied  both  in  Eng- 
land and  Ireland,  and  grazing  and  pasturing  were,  as 
ever,  alluring  to  the  enterprising  man  with  some 
capital,  so  that  there  went  on  throughout  the  nine- 
teenth century  great  clearances  of  the  peasants  from 
the  land  which  they  worked  upon,  and  also  a  con- 
solidation of  very  small  holdings  into  somewhat 
larger  ones,  a  process  which  increased  rapidly  after 
the  famine,  when  peasants  fled  from  the  stricken 
country,  when  old  landlords  yielded  to  new,  or  as 
proprietors  strove  to  rehabilitate  their  fortunes.  In 


194    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

1841  Ireland  was  still  largely  a  country  of  small 
holdings,  but  ten  years  later  the  number  of  them  had 
diminished  to  a  fourth,  while  the  number  of  large  ones 
had  nearly  quadrupled. 

Not  only  was  the  land  taken  from  the  peasants, 
but  even  where  they  were  allowed  to  remain  their 
condition  was  a  miserable  one.  Often  it  was  the 
peasant,  not  the  landlord,  who  had  brought  the  land 
into  cultivation;  often  it  was  he  and  his  family  who 
had  reclaimed  it.  Yet  the  land  was  the  landlord's; 
all  that  he  did  was  to  let  it  to  the  tenant.  The  land- 
lord made  no  improvements,  as  a  rule,  and  if  im- 
provements were  made  by  the  tenant,  they  belonged 
to  the  landlord,  who  was  not  bound  to  give  any  com- 
pensation, and  often  gave  none.  "Tenants'  improve- 
ments are  landlords'  perquisites,"  it  was  said. 
Therefore  not  many  improvements  were  made,  and  the 
peasants  working  on  with  difficulty  and  no  great  in- 
terest, were  seldom  able  to  increase  the  yield  of  their 
holdings,  and  often  in  their  ignorance  allowed  the  soil 
to  wear  out,  which  did  much  to  increase  the  danger 
from  famine,  and  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  great 
catastrophe  which  came.  The  principal  ambition  of 
the  tenant  was  to  pay  his  rent  and  get  a  living  for  his 
family,  after  which  he  deliberately  avoided  improve- 
ment or  appearance  thereof,  since  experience  showed 
him  that  betterment  of  any  kind  was  apt  to  bring 
higher  rent.  And  observers  recorded  that  many  ten- 
ants considered  it  wisest  to  go  clad  in  rags  and  live  in 
filthy  hovels,  lest  they  seem  able  to  make  higher  pay- 


LAND  LEGISLATION  195 

ments.  On  one  occasion  a  farmer  was  asked  why  he 
wore  such  shabby  and  tattered  clothes.  "Sure,"  he 
replied,  "the  last  new  caat  cost  me  2s.  6d.  an  acre  more 
rent."  3  One  easily  imagines  the  economic  deteriora- 
tion and  abasement  of  character  which  attended  such 
circumstances  as  these.  Legally  the  landlord  had 
nearly  complete  power  over  the  soil,  the  tenant  no 
security  of  possession.  Such  slight  measures  as  the 
law  had  taken  for  his  protection  were  easily  evaded. 

But  conditions  were  actually  no.t  quite  so  bad  as 
writers  sometimes  represent  them.  Custom  did  some- 
thing to  mitigate  the  hardness  of  the  law.  In  Ulster, 
and  less  definitely  in  the  rest  of  Ireland,  there  pre- 
vailed a  tenant-right  which  provided  that  so  long  as 
the  tenant  paid  his  rent  and  held  to  the  conditions  of 
his  lease,  he  must  have  undisturbed  possession;  and 
that  when  he  gave  up  possession  he  might  sell  his  in- 
terest in  the  holding.  Where  this  custom  had  most 
prevailed,  it  had  come  to  give  the  tenant  a  consider- 
able security,  and  tenants  bought  and  sold  their  in- 
terests as  a  form  of  property.  It  was  absolutely  un- 
protected by  law,  but  so  firmly  was  it  founded  upon 
custom  that  in  Ulster  tenant-right  was  estimated  to 
have  a  selling  value  of  £20,000,000.  While  this  cus- 
tom worked  in  some  ways  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
tenant,  yet  generally  it  was  so  far  superior  to  the  con- 
dition recognized  by  law,  that  where  it  prevailed  usu- 
ally estates  were  improved,  and  tenants,  and  some- 
times landlords,  prospered  more  greatly. 

3  G.  P.  Macdonell,  in  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History,  pp.  486,  487. 


196    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

But  especially  after  the  famine  this  right  was  dis- 
regarded increasingly  over  most  of  the  island.  Land- 
lords now  tried  to  improve  their  estates  without  con- 
sideration of  tenants,  and  after  the  Encumbered 
Estates  Act  of  1849  estates  were  bought  in  by  new 
landlords  and  consolidated  with  others,  and  the  ten- 
ants pressed  out  or  encouraged  to  leave.  Under  the 
new  order  now,  tenant-right  custom  was  never  per- 
mitted by  some.  So  it  was  that  in  the  sad,  gaunt 
years  after  the  famine,  when  clearance  and  eviction 
followed  hunger  and  despair,  tenants  who  had  once 
relied  upon  old  custom  to  protect  them  felt  insecure 
and  suspicious ;  and  what  had  been  done  in  some  places 
under  the  land  system  at  its  worst,  came  to  be  more 
characteristic  of  the  peasant's  lot  in  all  places :  he  was 
at  the  mercy  of  his  landlord;  he  might  be  evicted  at 
any  time;  his  improvements  went  to  the  landlord; 
if  he  was  cast  out  he  got  no  compensation  for  them. 
And  so  the  agrarian  situation,  very  bad  before,  be- 
came worse  and  worse.  Industry  and  enterprise 
withered;  poverty  prevailed;  those  who  could,  went 
forth  from  the  country. 

This  situation  was  the  root  of  most  of  the  Irish 
troubles,  and  it  was  the  bettering  of  these  conditions 
which  produced  the  new  Ireland  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. Englishmen,  long  ignorant  or  indifferent  or 
bowed  under  burdens  of  their  own,  at  last  were  forced 
to  behold,  and  then  became  eager  to  help.  There  had 
been  agitation  for  repeal  of  the  Union,  and  then  the 
Fenian  movement.  Finally,  when  Irishmen  showed 


LAND  LEGISLATION  197 

hatred  for  England  and  sympathy  for  the  enemy,  as 
they  did  during  the  Indian  mutiny  and  the  Crimean 
War,  it  meant  more  to  Englishmen  than  it  had  to  their 
ancestors  of  the  time  of  Napoleon  or  the  age  of  Louis 
XIV. 

Evil  agrarian  conditions  produced  agrarian  out- 
rage and  crime  with  which  the  law  was  nearly  power- 
less to  deal,  and  which  amazed  Englishmen  living  in 
the  quiet  of  their  own  happier  land.  In  1804  Charles 
James  Fox  had  written  that  the  necessity  of  Ireland's 
being  so  repeatedly  administered  by  martial  law  was 
ground  enough  for  pondering  and  reconsidering  the 
situation  there.  English  travellers,  who  examined 
the  matter,  reported  that  this  lawlessness  and  crime 
was  the  natural  outcome  of  the  conditions  in  which  the 
Irish  peasants  were  living:  they  reclaimed  land  from 
bog  and  marsh;  they  paid  rent  to  some  landlord  for 
it ;  often  they  were  willing  to  pay  rent ;  but  they  were 
not  willing  to  be  dispossessed  from  holdings  which, 
saving  the  rent,  they  regarded  as  their  own.  As 
evictions  and  clearance  went  on,  midnight  outrage  and 
murder  increased.  Crimes  and  coercion  acts  were 
passed;  it  was  seldom  that  Ireland  was  not  ruled  out- 
side of  ordinary  laws;  yet  peace  was  not  maintained. 
Many  a  one  was  arrested;  but  where  an  agrarian 
murder  had  been  committed,  it  was  almost  impossible 
to  secure  conviction  from  a  jury.  In  England  and  in 
Scotland  at  this  time  only  a  fourth  of  the  persons 
committed  to  trial  were  acquitted,  but  in  Ireland  more 
than  half  were  let  go.  In  I860,  it  is  true,  a  land  act 


198    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

was  passed,  but  such  changes  as  it  made  were  soon 
found  of  little  assistance  to  tenants,  since  it  tried  to 
help  them  without  taking  from  the  landlord  any  of  his 
rights.  Evictions  went  on  as  before,  and  a  series  of 
adverse  seasons  brought  such  famine  and  misery  that 
crime  broke  out  with  renewed  violence,  and  emigra- 
tion rapidly  increased.  It  was  in  the  years  that  fol- 
lowed that  Fenianism  rose  to  its  worst. 

This  was  the  situation  which  confronted  Gladstone 
and  the  Liberal  ministry,  and  which  confronted  also 
the  changing  conscience  of  England.  As  soon  as  the 
disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  had  been  effected, 
the  agrarian  question  was  considered.  At  last  the 
attention  of  both  parties  had  been  drawn  to  the  evil 
state  of  things  in  Ireland,  and  now  there  was  little 
difficulty  in  carrying  through  parliament  the  Land 
Act  of  1870.  Gladstone's  law  legalized  the  tenant- 
right  custom,  or  established  it  where  it  did  not  already 
exist,  so  far  as  to  permit  tenants  to  sell  their  unex- 
hausted improvements  and  to  provide  damages  for 
arbitrary  disturbance  of  their  possession.  Certain 
clauses  were  added  by  which  loans  were  to  be  ad- 
vanced to  tenants  who  wished  to  buy  their  holdings 
from  the  landlords. 

But  the  Irish  land  question  was  so  entangled  with 
evils,  which  this  legislation  only  slightly  touched,  that 
much  more  was  needed  before  real  improvement  could 
be  made.  Rents,  based  often  upon  competition  of 
tenants  with  each  other,  were  too  high,  and  this  law 
did  nothing  to  lower  them.  It  was  soon  found  that 


LAND  LEGISLATION  199 

the  landlord's  power  of  eviction  had  in  no  wise  been 
destroyed.  The  tenant  could  realize  his  rights  only 
on  eviction  or  when  he  was  leaving  the  land,  and  the 
Irish  peasant  was  unwilling  to  go  from  his  home  so 
long  as  it  was  tolerable  to  live  there.  Moreover,  all 
sorts  of  ways  were  found  for  evasion.  Actually  the 
landlord's  rights  were  scarcely  diminished,  and  so  the 
tenant's  interests  were  not  much  more  protected  than 
before.  Finally,  while  the  tenants  were  found  eager 
to  acquire  their  farms,  the  government  aid  extended 
in  the  law  helped  very  little.  The  three  great  princi- 
ples laid  down  in  the  Tenant-Right  Convention  of 
1850,  the  three  F's,  as  they  came  to  be  called,  fair 
rents,  fixity  of  tenure,  and  free  sale,  could  not  be 
achieved  without  more  substantial  assistance  from  the 
state,  and  more  direct  interference  on  the  part  of  the 
state  with  the  rights  of  the  landlord.  The  law  of  1870 
was  so  far  a  failure  that  conditions  were  but  slightly 
improved,  and  discontent  and  disorder  remained  much 
as  before.  Tenants  had  protection  only  if  their  rents 
were  not  in  arrears ;  compensation  for  eviction  was  so 
low  that  landlords  often  deemed  it  well  to  evict  and 
then  raise  the  rent;  and  in  so  far  as  the  tenant  was 
protected  in  his  tenure  there  was  nothing  done  to  pro- 
tect him  from  a  raising  of  the  rent. 

Rents  continued  to  rise  after  the  act,  but  for  some 
years  Ireland  was  comparatively  prosperous,  since 
agricultural  prices  also  were  rising.  Accordingly 
farmers  preferred  to  pay  higher  rents  when  demanded, 
rather  than  be  evicted  and  get  inadequate  compensa- 


200          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

tion.  But  after  a  while  prosperity  ceased,  and  an- 
other famine  almost  came  upon  the  land.  Discontent 
was  now  greater  than  ever.  About  1879  some  of  the 
Fenians  joined  with  the  great  new  Irish  leader,  Par- 
nell,  and  under  the  leadership  of  Michael  Davitt 
founded  the  Land  League,  to  get  reform,  and  par- 
ticularly reform  of  agrarian  conditions,  and  change 
conditions  so  that  the  peasants  might  not  be  starved 
in  another  great  famine.  Agitation  and  violence  in- 
creased; and  the  members  of  the  League  undertook 
to  control  the  land  situation  in  Ireland  by  means  of 
boycott  against  any  new  tenants  who  took  at  an  in- 
creased rent  holdings  from  which  previously  tenants 
had  been  evicted.  Parnell  declared  that  if  any  one 
took  a  farm  from  which  another  had  been  driven  out, 
he  should  be  treated  as  a  leper  of  old.  The  Irish 
situation  became  now  exceedingly  disturbing.  New 
coercion  acts  were  passed.  Associations  of  Irishmen 
began  to  declare  that  they  would  pay  no  rent  at  all 
which  they  did  not  consider  a  fair  one;  and  a  cam- 
paign of  outrage,  terror,  and  intimidation  followed 
with  the  usual  consequences  in  Ireland.  Yet  it  is 
very  probable  that  those  who  resisted  did  much  to 
further  the  change  which  now  took  place;  and  there 
are  some  who  look  upon  the  establishment  of  the 
Land  League  at  this  time  as  the  turning-point  in  the 
modern  history  of  Ireland. 

In  1881  a  land  act  was  passed  of  immense  import- 
ance: the  Magna  Carta  of  Irish  tenants.  Gladstone 
attempted  to  remedy  what  was  wanting  in  the  law  of 


LAND  LEGISLATION  201 

1870,  and  provide  the  three  F's  which  were  so  much 
desired.  The  tenant  was  to  have  fixity  of  tenure 
under  the  protection  of  the  state,  and  he  was  to  pay 
a  fair  rent  fixed  by  the  land  court  for  fifteen  years. 
Moreover,  if  the  tenant  wished  to  buy  his  holding, 
the  state  would  loan  him  most  of  the  purchase  money. 
It  was  not  easy  to  understand  how  revolutionary 
such  legislation  was  in  a  British  parliament,  substi- 
tuting, as  it  did,  for  the  old  English  ideas  of  compe- 
tition and  contract,  the  ideas  of  protection  and  status. 
But  it  would  be  instructive  for  those  reformers  who 
so  easily  terminate  great  evils  in  the  schemes  which 
they  lightly  draw  up,  to  notice  how  far  this  act  came 
from  settling  all  the  evils  of  the  complicated  ques- 
tion it  was  to  redress.  Rents  were  much  reduced, 
but  the  market  was  falling,  and  it  was  difficult  for  the 
courts  to  decide  what  a  fair  rent  should  be.  Like 
those  justices  who  assessed  prices  and  wages  in  medi- 
eval times,  often  they  were  unable  to  please  any  one. 
Landlords  complained  that  their  rents  were  cut  down 
unjustifiably,  and  with  no  compensation  to  them, 
while  tenants  asserted  that  the  courts  favored  the 
owners  of  property.  "The  State  had  undertaken  to 
solve,  by  judicial  determination,  a  problem  which  com- 
petition might  roughly  solve,  but  human  ingenuity 
hardly  could."  4 

Meanwhile  prices  continued  to  fall,  and  hard  times 
together  with  greater  prospect  of  success  for  agita- 
tion brought  more  disorder  and  further  activity  of  the 

*  Barker,  p.  55. 


202    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Land  League.  In  1881  the  League  was  suppressed, 
but  in  the  following  year  Parnell  founded  the  Irish 
National  League  for  the  purpose  of  advancing  Home 
Rule  and  also  to  get  further  reform  in  the  land  laws. 
A  few  months  before,  the  notorious  and  ill-advised 
Phoenix  Park  murders  took  place;  new  and  severer 
coercion  acts  were  passed;  and  the  measures  of  con- 
ciliation cherished  by  Gladstone  and  the  Liberals 
abruptly  came  to  an  end.  In  the  years  following  there 
were  dynamite  outrages  plotted  in  America  and  perpe- 
trated in  London,  which  further  alienated  the  British 
people.  Nevertheless  all  classes  in  England  were 
forced  to  think  more  constantly  and  more  seriously 
about  the  Irish  problem,  and  along  with  much  exas- 
peration at  Parnell  and  the  Fenians  there  was  ever 
more  earnest  desire  to  find  a  remedy  and  do  justice. 

Accordingly  the  work  for  the  betterment  of  Ireland 
was  taken  up  also  by  the  Conservatives,  and  it  should 
be  said  that  in  later  times,  when  they  strenuously  op- 
posed Home  Rule,  they  often  pointed  out,  with  jus- 
tice, the  great  work  which  they  had  accomplished. 
Some  of  them  have  declared  that  while  they  have  re- 
fused to  accept  vain,  idealistic  plans  for  the  assist- 
ance of  Ireland,  and  have  consistently  opposed  Home 
Rule  and  anything  tending  to  weaken  the  Empire  by 
dissolving  the  connection  with  Ireland,  they  have  done 
most  of  what  has  been  accomplished  for  bettering 
Irish  conditions,  through  reducing  the  power  of  the 
landlord  and  helping  peasants  to  purchase  the  soil. 

In  1887,  when  the  Conservatives  returned  to  office, 


203 

after  Gladstone  had  failed  in  his  first  attempt  to  carry 
Home  Rule,  Lord  Salisbury  continued  the  land  legis- 
lation which  the  Liberals  had  begun.  Evil  condi- 
tions and  the  increasing  boldness  and  better  organi- 
zation of  Irishmen  made  agrarian  conditions  worse 
than  ever.  Evictions  were  increasing;  agricultural 
prices  were  falling.  It  became  difficult  to  pay  any 
rent.  In  1886  the  potato  crop  failed.  In  December 
of  that  year  began  a  movement  known  as  the  "Plan 
of  Campaign."  It  was  agreed  that  tenants  should 
offer  their  landlords  a  fair  rent,  and  if  the  landlords 
refused  to  accept  it,  then  the  rent  should  be  paid 
into  the  treasury  of  the  National  League,  which  would 
give  such  tenants  support.  In  the  land  war  which 
followed  this  plan  was  greatly  abused,  as  might  be 
expected,  being  employed  by  dishonest  people  as  well 
as  by  those  with  just  grievance,  and  against  good 
landlords  as  well  as  bad  ones.  There  was  a  great  deal 
of  boycotting  also.  Some  landlords  could  collect  no 
rents  and  others  were  forced  to  grant  reductions,  and 
the  condition  of  the  country  was  gravely  disturbed. 
In  1887  a  Crimes  Act  was  passed  giving  the  author- 
ities large  powers  to  prosecute  and  arrest.  In  most 
of  Ireland  the  National  League  was  suppressed,  but 
there  were  conflicts  between  people  and  police,  and 
much  defiance  of  the  law.  Yet  it  must  be  said  that 
the  cause  of  the  peasants  was  more  and  more  brought 
to  the  attention  of  authorities  and  people  in  Eng- 
land. 

Lord    Salisbury,    conservative    and    aristocratic, 


204    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

strong  and  prejudiced,  was  little  disposed  to  yield  to 
Irish  disorder,  for  this  was  exactly  what  Conserva- 
tives had  taunted  Gladstone  with  doing.  But  in  ac- 
cord with  the  prevailing  spirit  of  the  time  he  did  do  it, 
and  hearkened  to  the  demand  made  by  the  National 
League  that  rents  should  be  further  reduced.  The 
judicial  rents  accorded  by  the  law  of  1881  had  been 
fixed  for  a  period  of  fifteen  years,  but  a  new  law  now 
compelled  Irish  landlords  to  accept  a  further  reduc- 
tion. Judicial  rents  were  extended  to  leaseholders 
as  well  as  to  yearly  tenants.  In  1891  and  in  1896  the 
system  was  further  extended  and  finally  consolidated. 
By  1900  half  of  all  the  soil  of  Ireland  was  subject  to 
judicial  rents,  and  a  general  reduction  had  been  made 
in  rents  of  forty  per  cent.  That  is  to  say,  by  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  British  government, 
which  had  once  taken  the  land  from  the  people  and 
given  it  over  to  tyrannous  landlords,  now  took  the 
tenants  under  its  protection.  This  was  something 
that  as  yet  it  had  not  begun  to  do  for  the  correspond- 
ing classes  in  England. 

It  was  a  very  difficult  task  which  the  state  had 
undertaken  for  the  Irish  people.  It  had  established 
and  was  trying  to  maintain  a  double  interest,  a  two- 
fold proprietorship,  of  landlord  and  tenant,  over  the 
soil.  It  was  not  easy  to  do  this  so  as  to  safeguard 
the  interests  of  both  and  meet  their  desires.  Gener- 
ally speaking  the  system  worked  well,  for  evictions 
and  agrarian  crimes  were  reduced.  But  the  changes 
were  made  in  an  era  of  falling  prices,  and  whenever 


LAND  LEGISLATION  205 

rents  were  altered  they  were  made  lower.  It  has 
been  observed  that  in  periods  of  industrial  prosperity 
sharing  of  profits  is  exceedingly  popular  with  em- 
ployees, though  it  has  always  been  doubtful  whether 
they  would  voluntarily  accept  part  of  the  losses  if 
times  became  hard.  And  so  with  the  Irish  agricul- 
tural situation:  "if  a  period  should  ever  come  in  which 
judicial  rents,  instead  of  being  steadily  lowered,  had 
to  be  increased  to  meet  a  rise  of  prices,  the  peace  might 
become  a  storm."  5 

Far  more  important  was  the  system  of  land  pur- 
chase, taken  up  somewhat  after  the  beginning  of  regu- 
lation of  agrarian  relations,  but  carried  steadily  for- 
ward all  through  these  later  years.  The  first  device 
made  the  Irish  peasants  happier  tenants,  the  second 
made  them  owners  of  the  soil.  Purchase  of  Irish 
land  by  the  tenants  with  the  assistance  of  the  govern- 
ment was  advocated  by  John  Bright  in  1866.  Under 
his  influence  a  small  beginning  was  made  in  the  Act 
for  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  in  1869, 
when  tenants  of  church  lands  were  given  the  refusal 
of  their  holdings,  and  allowed  three-fourths  of  the 
purchase  price  on  mortgage  at  four  per  cent  interest. 
The  government  advanced  a  considerable  sum  of 
money  to  assist  them,  and  most  of  these  tenants 
bought  their  holdings.  The  same  principle  was  used 
in  the  Land  Act  of  1870  and  in  that  of  1881,  but 
conditions  remained  such  that  not  many  tenants 
bought,  and  the  government  was  not  called  on  to  give 

5  Barker,  p.  57. 


206    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

much  assistance.  Yet  the  idea  was  soon  taken  into 
the  greater  favor  of  both  parties.  The  Liberals  pro- 
posed a  larger  measure,  which  failed,  and  Gladstone 
intended,  if  he  were  able  to  carry  Home  Rule,  to 
bring  in  also  a  comprehensive  measure  for  land  pur- 
chase at  the  same  time.  Then  the  Conservatives  took 
up  the  plan.  During  Lord  Salisbury's  first  adminis- 
tration in  1885,  the  Ashbourne  Act  became  law.  The 
government  put  aside  £5,000,000  to  lend  to  tenants 
of  small  holdings,  where  the  landlords  were  willing 
to  sell  to  them;  and  whereas  previously  the  govern- 
ment would  lend  three-fourths  of  the  purchase,  now 
all  of  it  would  be  advanced.  A  supplementary  act 
was  passed  during  the  second  Salisbury  administra- 
tion, in  1888,  appropriating  a  like  sum  additional. 
In  a  few  years  the  £10,000,000  was  spent,  and  25,000 
peasants  bought  their  holdings. 

The  plan  became  very  popular,  getting  momentum 
as  it  went,  for  instead  of  paying  rent  as  tenants,  the 
new  proprietors  paid  back  the  loan  to  the  government 
in  forty-nine  annual  installments,  the  interest  being  at 
four  per  cent.  Conditions  were  such  that  the  prices 
paid  in  purchase  were  low,  with  the  result  that  if  one 
purchased  he  paid  less  by  the  year  than  if  he  con- 
tinued to  rent.  In  1891  and  1896  the  Conservatives 
caused  to  be  passed  acts  for  the  appropriation  of  much 
larger  sums  of  money;  more  than  £13,000,000  was  ad- 
vanced by  the  state,  and  46,000  tenants  purchased 
their  holdings. 

Thus  far  all  had  gone  well,  even  though  of  late 


LAND  LEGISLATION  207 

the  progress  had  been  slower.  But  the  scheme  had 
so  far  been  successful  because  landlords  had  been  wil- 
ling to  sell.  Now,  just  at  the  time  when  Irish  ten- 
ants were  beginning  generally  to  buy  holdings  for 
themselves,  it  was  found  that  landlords  no  longer  con- 
sidered it  profitable  to  sell,  since  they  were  paid  by 
the  government  in  securities  whose  value  began  to 
fall  because  of  conditions  prevailing  about  the  time 
of  the  South  African  War,  securities  which  presently 
went  much  below  par.  Altogether  some  70,000  ten- 
ants out  of  the  total  number,  perhaps,  of  more  than 
half  a  million,  had  now  become  tenants  of  the  state, 
and  were  on  the  road  to  possessing  their  land  in  free- 
hold. The  scheme  had  become  very  popular  and 
money  was  eagerly  applied  for,  but  now  it  was  diffi- 
cult to  find  properties  on  the  market.  Accordingly  a 
demand  arose  that  the  state  should  make  them  sell 
out.  In  1898  William  O'Brien  and  others  founded 
the  United  Irish  League,  really  a  successor  to  the  old 
National  League,  and  began  to  attack  the  proprietors 
of  the  large  grazing  farms,  and  demand  that  they  be 
expropriated  by  the  government,  and  their  property 
divided  and  sold  to  small  purchasers,  so  as  to  relieve 
the  poverty  and  congestion  which  produced  so  much 
misery  in  the  island.  The  agitation  thus  begun  soon 
extended  into  demand  for  compulsory  expropriation 
of  all  landlords.  The  movement  was  supported  by 
Protestants  and  Catholics,  the  tenants  in  Ulster  mak- 
ing common  cause  with  tenants  in  the  rest  of  Ireland. 
There  might  have  been  here  a  bitter  struggle,  but 


208    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

old  conservatism  and  holding  to  vested  interests  were 
beginning  to  give  way  before  fear  and  a  new  view  of 
the  situation,  and  the  more  moderate  and  far-sighted 
landlords  sought  to  effect  an  understanding  with  the 
more  conservative  of  the  leaders  of  the  tenants.  In 
1902  a  meeting  was  held  at  which  an  agreement  was 
made,  known  as  the  "Dunraven  Treaty."  A  unani- 
mous report  declared  that  completion  of  purchase  of 
the  land  by  the  tenants  was  the  only  solution  of  the 
Irish  land  question,  and  then  suggested  a  scheme  to 
make  the  thing  equally  advantageous  to  landlord  and 
tenant. 

The  program  was  carried  out  in  the  Wyndham 
Act  of  1903.  By  this  law  £100,000,000  was  to  be 
raised  through  the  issuing  of  British  securities.  The 
money  was  to  be  advanced  to  tenants  for  the  pur- 
chase of  their  holdings.  To  make  landlords  willing  to 
sell  it  was  provided  that  they  should  be  paid  in  cash, 
and  receive  an  additional  twelve  per  cent  of  the  price 
as  a  bonus.  To  encourage  tenants  the  rate  of  in- 
terest on  money  loaned  to  them  was  reduced  from 
four  to  three  and  a  quarter  per  cent,  though  the  period 
of  repayment,  which  had  been  lowered  to  forty-two 
years,  was  now  extended  to  sixty-eight  and  a  half. 
Various  provisions  of  the  law  made  easy  the  sale  which 
had  previously  been  complicated  with  instructions. 

The  law  was  very  popular  at  once,  and  the  Estates 
Commissioners,  who  were  appointed  to  administer  it, 
were  speedily  confronted  with  many  more  requests 
than  they  were  able  to  deal  with.  They  were  limited 


LAND  LEGISLATION  209 

to  advancing  £5,000,000  annually;  and  year  by  year 
this  was  all  given  out.  By  1912  120,000  tenants  had 
received  assistance,  and  about  the  same  number  in 
addition  were  awaiting  their  turn.  So  it  seemed  that 
the  land  question  was  at  last  on  the  way  of  being 
definitely  settled.  The  problem  was  being  solved, 
but  meanwhile  many  difficulties  remained.  It  was 
found  that  the  total  sum  appropriated  fell  short  of 
what  would  be  required.  Where  £100,000,000  was 
proposed,  it  was  soon  thought  that  £160,000,000 
would  be  needed.  When  the  Wyndham  Act  was 
passed,  it  had  been  supposed  that  the  Irish  Land 
Stock,  which  was  to  be  issued  for  getting  money  to 
lend  to  the  tenants,  would  not  fall  much  below  par, 
but  in  accord  with  general  tendencies  all  over  the 
world  this  stock  declined,  until  at  the  beginning  of 
1912  it  stood  at  78.  To  get  £100  in  cash,  consider- 
ably more  than  that  had  to  be  issued  in  stock,  and  at 
the  same  time,  because  of  the  same  tendencies,  prices 
generally  were  rising.  The  government  had  gener- 
ously, but  perhaps  unwisely,  lowered  the  rate  of  in- 
terest which  the  tenant  had  to  pay.  Therefore  in 
1909  the  Birrell  Act  was  passed,  by  which,  among 
other  things,  the  landlord  was  to  be  paid  in  three  per 
cent  stock  at  its  market  value,  while  the  tenant's  rate 
was  to  be  raised  to  three  and  a  half  per  cent. 

While  the  government  was  grappling  with  these 
difficulties,  created  by  its  own  generosity,  difficulties 
which  came  to  be  so  great  that  they  threatened  the 
financial  breakdown  of  the  scheme,  there  were  not 


210    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

wanting  those  who  from  the  other  side  declared  that 
the  landlords  were  receiving  high  prices,  that  in  poor 
years  tenants  might  find  it  difficult  to  make  their 
payments  to  the  state,  and  that  while  the  British  gov- 
ernment was  for  the  present  providing  the  money 
with  which  the  land  was  purchased,  yet  since  all  of  it 
had  in  the  end  to  be  paid  back  by  Ireland,  it  was  not 
fair  for  it  to  be  repaid  with  reference  to  British  loans 
which  could  only  be  put  upon  the  market  at  a  serious 
discount.  Some  of  these  particular  criticisms,  it  is 
true,  were  met  in  1909. 

In  spite  of  these  objections  the  great  work  went 
forward  steadily,  though  not  quite  so  quickly  as  at 
first.  The  problems  of  dealing  with  evicted  tenants 
and  with  the  inhabitants  of  congested  districts  were 
not  dealt  with  as  speedily  as  some  expected,  and  there 
was  a  revival  of  some  agrarian  disorder  in  1907,  to 
compel  graziers  not  to  rent  their  lands  on  short  term, 
but  have  them  divided  among  small  farmers;  but  for 
the  most  part  a  great  change  had  come  over  the  island. 
The  greatest  and  most  universal  of  the  grievances  of 
the  Irish  people  had  been  the  taking  away  of  their 
land.  For  a  great  while  they  had  suffered,  and, 
whenever  they  could,  broken  out  in  wild  disorder  and 
transgression.  During  the  nineteenth  century  agra- 
rian outrage  had  been  so  common  and  life  so  unsafe 
that  Ireland  was  usually  under  some  sort  of  coercion 
or  crimes  act,  of  a  character  and  severity  that  would 
not  have  been  necessary  in  Scotland  or  in  England  in 
time  of  war;  and  even  so,  destruction  and  midnight 


LAND  LEGISLATION  211 

murder  had  continued.  Now,  economic  contentment 
was  beginning  to  prevail,  and  along  with  it  came  an 
order  and  a  quiet  seldom  seen  in  Ireland  before.  The 
work  was  not  yet  finished,  and  would  not  be  for  some 
years,  but  already  the  end  was  in  sight.  At  the 
present  time  one-half  of  all  Irish  soil,  and  two-thirds 
of  all  that  can  be  used,  previously  subject  to  land- 
lords, is  in  the  hands  of  men  who  are  actually  tenants 
of  the  state,  but  who  know  that  they  are  steadily 
progressing  towards  independent  proprietorship,  and 
that  their  children  will  be  owners  after  them. 

There  is  still  the  problem  of  the  congested  districts, 
the  rural  slums,  where  families  live  in  abject  poverty 
upon  soil  unproductive  and  sterile,  mostly  in  Con- 
naught,  in  the  west  of  Ireland ;  but  that  also  is  in  the 
way  of  being  solved.  There  are  still  also  some  land- 
lords who  have  not  cared  to  sell.  In  1913  a  bill  was 
introduced  by  a  Liberal  government  which  proposed 
to  do  what  the  act  of  1903  was  designed  to  avoid, 
compel  landlords  to  sell;  but  this  measure  was 
dropped.  Generally  speaking,  Ireland  is  passing  into 
the  hands  of  its  people,  more  than  any  other  country, 
with  the  exception  of  Servia  rude  and  small,  perhaps 
of  Russia  ruined  and  chaotic,  and  France  since  the 
French  Revolution. 

The  government  has  also  given  assistance  to  Irish 
rural  laborers,  who  did  not  benefit  very  much  from 
the  earlier  land  legislation.  The  Poor  Law  Unions 
were  given  the  power  to  erect  cottages  and  let  them  to 
laborers  at  a  rent  under  cost.  In  1906  a  law  was 


212    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

passed  especially  in  their  interests.  Money  was  to  be 
loaned  to  the  District  Councils  for  the  erection  of 
cottages,  and  the  government  would  give  the  laborers 
help  to  buy  their  grounds.  The  result  was  that  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  many  a  laborer  had  obtained 
a  cottage  with  three  rooms,  a  piggery,  a  garden  of 
an  acre  or  a  half  an  acre,  for  which  he  paid  a  very 
small  rent.  By  1913  more  than  £4,000,000  had  been 
spent  for  this  purpose.  It  was  often  pointed  out  that 
as  yet  nothing  like  this  was  being  done  for  English- 
men, and  that  it  would  be  well  if  the  like  could  be  done. 
These  are  the  fundamental  things  in  recent  Irish 
history.  Probably  their  significance  is  not  often 
realized  outside  of  Ireland  and  England.  In 
America,  the  uninformed,  when  they  think  of  Irish 
matters,  consider  them  either  with  respect  to  the  days 
of  the  famine  and  the  great  evictions,  or  else  with 
reference  to  the  repeated  failure  of  the  movement  to 
obtain  independence  or  Home  Rule.  They  think  of 
an  old  England,  which  they  only  dimly  understand, 
and  not  at  all,  perhaps,  in  respect  of  things  as  they 
formerly  were,  and  conceive  of  a  heartless,  tyrannous, 
and  obstinate  nation  oppressing  the  Irish  people  and 
denying  their  rights.  They  do  not  realize  that  partly 
because  of  the  vigor  and  pertinacity  of  Irishmen, 
partly  because  of  the  character  of  Englishmen  in 
recent  times  and  the  leniency,  after  all,  recently  of 
their  rule  in  Ireland,  there  has  been  brought  about  one 
of  the  most  significant  revolutions  of  modern  times. 


LAND  LEGISLATION  213 

Irishmen  protested  and  rioted  and  defied  the  law  until 
they  attracted  attention  at  the  very  time  that  English- 
men were  becoming  democratic  and  humanitarian. 
When  the  case  had  been  made  clear  to  them,  the  essen- 
tial justness  and  fairness  that  are  in  the  English  char- 
acter brought  about  something  that  could  never  have 
taken  place  in  Prussian  Poland,  and,  indeed,  some- 
thing that  the  most  humane  and  enlightened  countries 
have  seldom  attempted.  A  great  national  wrong  once 
committed  was  undone  by  the  state.  England  gave  to 
Irishmen  financial  assistance  to  bring  about  for  them- 
selves that  which  the  French  were  able  to  get  only 
after  a  mighty  upheaval,  which  the  English  people 
have  not  yet  got  for  themselves,  and  which  the  agri- 
cultural proletariat  of  many  another  country  sees  only 
in  utter  revolution  or  some  dim  dream  of  the  future. 
It  is  nothing  more  than  assistance  that  was  given,  some 
will  say,  and  it  was  no  more  than  justice  merely.  But 
as  things  have  been  in  this  world  such  assistance  and 
such  justice  are  not  very  often  bestowed. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  recall  the  manner  in  which 
German  writers  and  propagandists  have  expounded 
the  sad  state  of  Ireland  under  English  dominion,  and 
the  grievous  tyranny  .which  continues.  "There  exists 
no  future  for  Ireland  but  increasing  tuberculosis  and 
death  from  starvation  for  her  people,  or  an  absolute 
and  speedy  separation  from  England,"  says  the  intro- 
duction to  a  book  which  declares  Germany  the  greatest 
of  contemporary  nations,  that  the  Allies  plotted  her 


214    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

destruction,  and  that  the  wickedness  of  Belgium 
brought  retribution  richly  deserved.6  But  this  was 
not  the  opinion  of  competent  German  scholars,  in  the 
days  before  the  war  when  some  of  them  thought  clearly 
and  spoke  the  truth  as  they  saw  it.  "Irish  tenants 
have  had  conditions  assured  to  them  more  favourable 
than  any  other  tenantry  in  the  world  enjoy,"  wrote 
Dr.  Bonn,  when  the  operation  of  land  laws  and  land 
purchase  laws  was  not  yet  complete.7  And  the  best 
and  most  constructive  among  Irish  leaders  and  men 
of  affairs  have  urged  and  adopted  and  furthered  these 
things  as  much  as  they  could. 

It  would  be  a  grievous  mistake  to  suppose  that  this 
legislation  has  remedied  all  Irish  ills  and  made  Arcadia 
or  earthly  paradise  in  the  island.  The  blight  of  the 
past  still  lies  heavy  upon  the  country.  The  taking 
of  the  land  once  and  the  suffering  which  resulted  drove 
from  Ireland  the  best  of  her  people;  they  cannot  be 
brought  back  now;  and  of  those  who  remained  the 
character  and  physique  was  diminished.  There  con- 
tinues to  be  grinding  poverty  and  the  hopeless  apathy 
that  comes  with  it.  Under  best  conditions  these  things 
will  not  disappear  at  once.  There  are  also  many 
agricultural  holdings,  in  the  possession  of  Irish  pro- 
prietors, it  is  true,  but  so  small  that  only  a  meager 
living  is  in  any  way  to  be  obtained  from  them. 
Moreover,  Ireland  is  not  by  nature  very  richly 
endowed,  and  cannot,  perhaps,  ever  be  greatly  rich. 

«  What  Could  Germany  Do  for  Ireland,  p.  21. 
i  Barker,  p.  66, 


LAND  LEGISLATION  215 

The  land  legislation,  then,  has  not  made  all  Irishmen 
prosperous  and  contented;  but  in  it  a  beginning  has 
been  made,  with  great  promise  for  the  future,  and 
much  progress  has  already  been  accomplished  towards 
a  solution  of  the  worst  parts  of  the  Irish  problem. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   AGRICULTURAL   RENAISSANCE 

There  is,  then,  a  strange  and  wonderful  renascence  in 
Ireland,  a  quickening  of  old  bones  with  new  life,  a  great, 
outspreading  development  which  will  culminate  one  day  in  an 
Ireland  which  is  as  prosperous  and  developed  as  is  Denmark 
now. 

St.  John  G.  Ervine,  Sir  Edward  Carson  and  the 
Ulster  Movement  (New  York,  1916),  p.  40. 

IRISH  agitation  long  continued  gained,  under  the 
new  order  in  England,  a  series  of  land  laws  and 
acts  for  assisting  the  tenants  to  purchase  the  land. 
As  a  result  the  Irish  people  were  becoming  the  owners 
of  their  soil;  and  in  a  far  freer  way  than  was  so  in 
the  old  days  of  Irish  romance  and  legend.  On  this 
foundation  the  Irish  people  themselves,  wisely  led  by 
some  excellent  men,  now  went  forward  to  build  up  a 
new  Irish  social  and  economic  life,  with  a  success  which 
constitutes  a  remarkable  achievement  in  modern  Irish 
life,  and  is  second  in  importance  only  to  the  getting 
of  the  land  into  the  hands  of  the  people.  The  achieve- 
ment followed  very  largely  from  the  efforts  of  the 
Irish  Agricultural  Organization  Society,  particularly 
the  work  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett. 

Sir  Horace  Plunkett  had  learned  by  experience 
something  about  farming  in  the  west  of  the  United 

216 


AGRICULTURAL  RENAISSANCE     217 

States.  He  wished  to  make  better  agriculture  in  Ire- 
land. He  saw  that  as  the  years  went  by  honest  efforts 
were  being  made  by  Irishmen  and  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment to  improve  agrarian  conditions  in  Ireland, 
but  he  perceived  that  the  efforts  for  betterment  had  to 
do  almost  entirely  with  the  land  as  it  was,  with  rent, 
eviction,  compensation  for  improvements,  and  so  on. 
This  was  very  desirable,  but  the  next  great  step  for- 
ward must  be  in  increasing  production,  getting  the 
ground  to  yield  more  for  those  who  worked  it,  and 
this  he  proposed  to  accomplish  through  co-opera- 
tive management  in  production  and  in  distribution. 
About  1889  he  began  to  work  for  this  in  Ireland. 

One  of  his  admirers  has  said  that  he  could  scarcely 
have  seemed  less  fitted  to  influence  great  numbers  of 
people,  ignorant  for  the  most  part,  and  separated  by 
dissensions  of  politics  and  creed:  he  was  shy,  hesitant 
in  manner,  and  with  none  of  the  gifts  of  speech  and 
personality  usual  in  popular  politics  either  in  Ireland, 
or  England,  or  the  United  States.  When  he  began 
his  work,  what  little  was  known  about  him  in  Ireland 
seemed  against  him,  for  he  was  a  Conservative  and 
moderate  Unionist  in  politics,  and  a  Protestant  in 
faith.  Setting  out  to  persuade  small  tenants  and 
peasant  proprietors  to  work  together  and  learn  to  do 
better  agricultural  work,  it  was  thought  that  he  could 
never  get  Protestants  and  Catholics,  Orangemen  and 
Nationalists  to  act  together,  that  priests  and  Episco- 
palian ministers  would  be  against  him,  that  the  land- 
lords would  oppose  him,  that  the  people  themselves 


218          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

would  have  none  of  him.  But  he  was  aflame  with 
enthusiasm.  Day  and  night,  fine  weather  and  foul, 
he  wrent  from  one  little  village  to  another,  arguing  and 
explaining  before  dull  and  suspicious  farmers,  and 
gradually  making  them  friends.  The  first  great  suc- 
cess came  when  he  won  the  priests,  as  O'Connell  had 
gained  them  once,  for  they  still  had  their  marvellous 
power  with  the  people.  And  he  enlisted  the  services 
of  capable  lieutenants,  particularly  George  W.  Rus- 
sell, idealist  and  thinker,  one  of  the  ablest  and  wisest 
writers  in  contemporary  Ireland.  The  politicians  did 
oppose  him,  and  strongly,  after  a  while,  but  he  had 
little  concern  with  politics  himself,  seeking  to  unite 
men  of  all  parties  under  an  ideal  of  regeneration  for 
Ireland.  Not  long  ago  he  declared  that  he  had  not 
been  on  a  political  platform  for  fifteen  years. 

The  British  parliament  had  made  a  revolution  in 
tenures  in  Ireland;  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  desired 
improvement  in  methods  of  using  the  land.  In  1894 
he  formed  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organization 
Society,  generally  known  as  the  I.  A.  O.  S.  This  was 
to  be  the  basis  and  central  organization  of  all  sorts  of 
co-operative  societies,  serving  as  a  center  for  encour- 
agement and  assistance.  Soon  it  founded  or  assisted 
co-operative  creameries,  where  the  farmers  sent  their 
milk  and  good  butter  was  made,  co-operative  banks, 
where  they  could  borrow  money  at  low  rates  of 
interest,  and  societies  which  collected  and  distributed 
eggs  or  encouraged  the  growing  of  flax.  And  these 
societies,  particularly  the  I.  A.  O.  S.,  attempted  to 


AGRICULTURAL  RENAISSANCE     219 

foster  home  industries,  gave  instruction  in  better  agri- 
cultural methods,  and  every  sort  of  helpful  infor- 
mation and  assistance.  In  all  this  Catholics  and 
Protestants  were  got  to  work  harmoniously  together, 
and  it  seemed  to  make  no  great  difference  whether  a 
man  was  a  Unionist  or  favored  Home  Rule.  By  1910 
there  were  some  900  co-operative  societies,  with  a 
membership  of  100,000,  dealing  in  goods  valued  at 
£2,500,000.  Production  was  increased  and  farmers 
were  started  on  the  way  to  a  greater  prosperity. 

It  is  true  that  in  agricultural  development  only  a 
beginning  has  been  made,  but  it  was  the  beginning 
which  was  most  important.  There  is  still  much  to  be 
taught  and  much  to  be  learned:  there  must  be  more 
agriculture,  it  is  said,  and  less  pasturing,  and  there 
must  be  a  better  system  of  pasture.  Ireland  now  pro- 
duces much  cattle  and  butter;  she  will  be  more  pros- 
perous when  she  can  produce  butter  in  winter,  as 
Denmark  does,  and  fatten  the  cattle  which  she  pro- 
duces to  export.  But  these  things  will  perhaps  come 
in  time,  through  the  further  work  of  the  I.  A.  O.  S. 
and  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  which  has 
grown  out  of  its  work. 

This  work  has  not  only  had  excellent  economic 
results;  from  it  have  come  social  and  political  conse- 
quences which  may  have  far-reaching  effects  in  the 
future.  It  has  been  well  said  that  before  the  era  of 
Irish  land  legislation  the  estate  was  the  unit  of  social 
organization,  and  that  this,  of  course,  began  to  dis- 
appear when  the  land  was  sold  in  small  holdings  to  the 


220    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

tenants.  A  new  organization  was  needed  for  the 
people,  and  it  was  furnished  by  the  co-operative 
movement.  The  spirit  of  tribal  community  had  once 
been  the  dominant  factor  in  Irish  life ;  this  spirit  sur- 
vived so  far  in  the  character  of  the  people  that  now 
local  co-operative  societies  easily  became  the  new  units 
of  social  life.  The  local  society  was  managed  by  a 
committee  elected  by  its  members.  And  just  as  once 
upon  a  time  most  Englishmen  received  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  humble  affairs  of  their  parishes  long  and 
valuable  training  for  greater  future  work  in  self- 
government,  so  Irishmen  of  the  present  time  were 
coming  to  manage  all  rural  business  and  many  of  the 
concerns  of  their  lives  in  their  own  co-operative 
societies.  And,  observers  say,  along  with  this  practice 
in  doing  things  and  gradually  managing  them,  a  new 
spirit  develops:  each  member  takes  greater  interest 
in  the  affairs  of  the  community  and  of  his  fellows. 
George  Russell  predicted  from  this  development  a 
future  society  containing  free  associations  of  pro- 
ducers and  workers,  constituting  small,  free  societies 
within  the  state.  This  would  be  something  like  the 
guild  socialism  which  has  arisen  of  late  years  in  Eng- 
land. Irishmen  and  Englishmen  who  have  studied 
these  movements  profess  to  see  in  them  hope  for  a 
happier  mankind  in  the  future. 

There  have  been  more  important  political  effects. 
As  the  work  of  the  I.  A.  O.  S.  went  forward,  Sir 
Horace  Plunkett  considered  means  of  obtaining  aid 
from  the  state.  He  organized  a  committee  which 


AGRICULTURAL  RENAISSANCE    221 

embraced  representatives  of  all  who  were  interested, 
without  distinction  of  creed  or  party.     In  1899  the 
government  established  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture   and    Technical    Instruction,    for   the   purpose, 
among  other  things,  of  encouraging  agriculture  and 
scientific  and  technical  education.     While  other  Irish 
boards  and  councils  are  represented  in  parliament  col- 
lectively by  the   Chief   Secretary   for   Ireland,   this 
department  is  represented  directly  by  its  chief  officer, 
a  vice-president.     But  if  it  is  directly  connected  with 
parliament,  it  is  also  directly  connected  with  the  Irish 
people,  through  representative  advisory  bodies:  the 
Council  of  Agriculture,  two-thirds  of  whose  members 
are  appointed  by  the  Irish  county  councils,  which  are 
themselves  directly  responsible  to  the  people,  and  the 
Board  of  Agriculture  and  Board  of  Technical  Instruc- 
tion, which  are  directly  or  indirectly  connected  with 
local    government    organs.     The    members    of    the 
Council  discuss  matters  of  public  interest  in  connec- 
tion with  the  working  of  the  Department,  and  to  some 
extent  are  able  to  control  it,  thus  bringing  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  definitely  into  association  with 
Irish  public  opinion.     This  system  of  democratic  con- 
trol both   in  the  local  co-operative   assemblies   and 
indirectly   over   the   Department   is    of   very   great 
importance  in  the  political  training  of  the  Irish  people. 
In  the  local  committees  men  get  training  in  adminis- 
trative work,  and  out  of  them  come  the  leaders  of  the 
committees.     There  are  some  who  say  that  the  Irish 
are  not  to  be  trusted  with  Home  Rule  inasmuch  as 


222          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

they  are  notoriously  lacking  in  political  ability  and 
training;  that  where  they  have  been  given  some  share 
in  self-government  there  is  graft  and  political  ineffi- 
ciency, and,  whatever  the  form  may  be,  a  relapse  into 
personal  and  tribal  government  with  modern  methods 
of  corruption.  But  since  1898  the  Irish  have  been 
learning  self-government  in  the  local  political  units, 
as  the  French  have  really  been  learning  it  in  the  last 
generation;  and  meanwhile  they  have  been  learning 
it  even  better  in  their  local  co-operative  organizations. 
It  has  been  wisely  said  that  when  Home  Rule  does 
come  into  effect,  it  may  be  found  that  the  best  prepa- 
ration for  it  was  the  co-operative  movement  in  agri- 
cultural life. 

Generally  the  work  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  has  not 
found  favor  with  Irish  political  leaders.  John  Red- 
mond gave  assistance  at  first,  but  in  1904  he  said  that 
the  real  object  of  the  movement  was  to  undermine  the 
Nationalist  Party,  and  divert  the  minds  of  the  people 
from  Home  Rule,  which  alone  could  lead  to  a  real 
revival  of  Irish  industries.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  the  politicians  Home  Rule  or  some  other  political 
device  was  naturally  the  all-important  thing  upon 
which  the  future  prosperity  of  Ireland  must  be  based ; 
and  they  found  it  not  easy  to  encourage  a  movement 
which  succeeded  in  bringing  prosperity  and  causing 
agriculture  to  flourish  without  any  Home  Rule  or 
separation.  And  the  older  politicians  had  reason  to 
fear,  for  this  movement  and  another  were  silently 


AGRICULTURAL  RENAISSANCE     223 

changing  political  thought  in  the  island,  bringing 
about  a  new  alignment,  and  relegating  the  leaders  to 
an  older  order,  though  as  yet  they  did  not  perceive  it. 
A  new  generation  was  growing  up,  which  would  later 
be  attracted  to  Sinn  Fein,  but  which  for  the  present 
was  thinking  new  thoughts  which  had  arisen  from  the 
co-operative  movement.  "They  have  done  with  old 
angers  and  ancient  rages,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "and 
the  bitter  wrangling  of  semi-dotards,  nor  have  they 
any  interest  in  internecine  quarrels,  the  differences 
between  Catholic  and  Protestant,  Orangeman  and 
Ancient  Hibernian.  They  are  bored  by  'the  sorrows 
of  Ireland';  they  do  not  desire  ever  again  to  hear  of 
the  horrors  of  the  Great  Famine  or  of  any  famine. .  .  . 
They  are  tired  to  death  of  rhetoricians  such  as  Mr. 
John  Redmond;  they  are  sick  of  oratory  and  Irish- 
Americans  and  Curse-the-Pope-put-your-fut-in-his- 
belly-Orangemen ;  and  above  all  they  are  tired  of 
Ireland  in  the  part  of  Lazarus  whining  for  crumbs 
from  England's  table."  1  A  new  party  of  Young 
Irishmen  had  arisen. 

Another  reason  for  this  opposition  was  that  the 
leaders  of  the  principal  political  party  represented 
interests  which  were  fundamentally  different  from 
those  fostered  by  the  co-operative  movement.  That 
movement  was  designed  not  only  to  enable  the  farmers 
to  work  together  so  as  to  produce  more,  but  also  to 
furnish  them  with  assistance  and  supplies,  and  enable 

i  Ervine,  pp.  41,  42. 


224    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

them  to  market  and  distribute  what  they  produced. 
In  so  far  as  this  succeeded,  it  would  tend  toward  the 
elimination  of  the  middleman.  Now  one  of  the 
important  factors  in  recent  Irish  economic  life  has 
been  the  work  of  the  gombeen-men.  They  sold  to 
farmers  the  needed  implements  and  supplies,  at  prices 
which  they  were  generally  able  to  fix,  loaned  them 
money  on  credit,  often  on  condition  that  the  farmers 
sell  them  their  produce,  and  purchased  the  produce  at 
prices  arranged  by  themselves.  The  gombeen-men 
were  the  capitalists  and  chief  persons  of  their  dis- 
tricts, and  were  important  in  political  life.  They  were 
strongly  represented  in  the  local  branches  of  the 
United  Irish  League,  the  modern  successor  of  the  old 
National  League,  and  chief  supporter  of  the 
Nationalist  and  Home  Rule  cause,  and  hence  had 
much  influence  on  the  policy  of  the  Nationalist  Party. 
Accordingly,  this  party  represented  a  trading  even 
more  than  an  agrarian  interest.  Furthermore,  the 
gombeen-men  came  to  be  represented  strongly  in  the 
Council  of  Agriculture,  and  were  thus  able  to  influence 
the  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  result  was  seen 
when  in  1910  the  Department  condemned  the  credit 
banks  of  the  I.  A.  O.  S.  as  insolvent,  and  in  the  year 
following  refused  it  a  grant  of  money. 

What  the  future  may  hold  is  uncertain,  but  such  has 
been  the  development  of  co-operative  organizations  in 
England,  in  America,  and  even  in  Russia,  that  much 
more  is  expected  of  them.  It  is  certain  that  in  Ireland 
the  I.  A.  O.  S.  has  been  the  foremost  factor  in  develop- 


225 


ing  a  better  feeling  of  self-reliance  and  a  greater 
economic  prosperity;  and  there  are  not  a  few  who 
think  that  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  has  deserved  better  of 
his  countrymen  than  any  other  of  this  generation. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   GOVERNMENT    OF   IRELAND 

My  poor  opinion  is,  that  the  closest  connexion  between 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is  essential  to  the  well-being,  I 
had  almost  said,  to  the  very  being,  of  the  two  kingdoms.  For 
that  purpose  I  humbly  conceive,  that  the  whole  of  the 
superiour,  and  what  I  should  call  imperial,  politicks  ought  to 
have  its  residence  here ;  and  that  Ireland,  locally,  civilly,  and 
commercially  independent,  ought  politically  to  look  up  to 
Great  Britain  in  all  matters  of  peace  or  of  war ;  in  all  those 
points  to  be  guided  by  her:  and,  in  a  word,  with  her  to  live 
and  to  die.  At  bottom,  Ireland  has  no  other  choice,  I  mean 
no  other  rational  choice. 

Edmund  Burke,  Letter  on  the  Affairs  of  Ireland, 
Written  in  the  Year  1797. 

ANEW  generation  was  growing  up  in  Ireland  in 
the  midst  of  better  conditions.  The  peasants 
were  acquiring  their  land,  and  in  their  own  co-opera- 
tive societies  learning  how  to  make  themselves  better 
farmers,  and  they  were  getting  new  habits  of  sturdy 
self-reliance.  Except  when  it  seemed  that  the  trans- 
fer of  the  soil  was  not  going  forward  sufficiently  fast, 
the  old  crime  and  disorder  had  almost  entirely  abated. 
Ireland  was  becoming  more  prosperous  and  quiet ;  and 
the  future  stretched  onward  better  and  better  as  men 
could  see  into  it  farther.  There  was  increasing  con- 
tentment, and  it  was  often  maintained  that  were  it  not 

226 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND     227 

for  politicians  and  Irish-Americans  there  would  be  no 
discontent  in  the  island.  And  yet  there  was  discon- 
tent. It  was  not  enough  that  most  men  could  now 
make  a  living,  and  that  some  were  getting  prosperity. 
Much  had  been  won,  but  still  much  was  desired.  As 
old  wants  were  satisfied  others  revived  and  new  ones 
arose.  A  great  many  people  believed  that  if  some 
economic  independence  had  been  got,  complete  indus- 
trial and  economic  prosperity  never  could  come  with- 
out a  radical  change  in  the  system  of  Irish  govern- 
ment ;  and  that  they  never  could  be  free  until  they  had 
complete  self-government  of  their  own. 

The  government  of  Ireland  is  an  interesting  and 
peculiar  thing,  not  so  excellent  as  often  believed  in 
England,  and  not  the  tyranny  that  some  other  people 
have  thought  it  to  be.  Substantially  it  has  not  been 
changed  since  the  Act  of  Union,  for  though  the  Home 
Rule  Law  is  at  last  upon  the  statute  books,  this 
law  has  not  been  brought  into  effect ;  yet  the  operation 
of  time  has  wrought  change  in  the  character  and  spirit 
of  the  government. 

The  Act  of  Union  did  not  bring  about  complete 
unification  of  the  governments  of  the  two  islands. 
The  parliaments  were  merged  into  one,  but  actually 
two  executives  remained.  The  opponents  of  Home 
Rule  are  against  whatever  would  to  a  considerable 
extent  separate  Ireland  from  England,  but  largely, 
with  respect  to  the  executive,  separate  government 
exists  at  present,  though  it  is  a  government  in  com- 
plete subordination  to  that  of  Great  Britain.  On 


228    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  other  hand  it  is  more  important  to  remember  that 
in  respect  of  the  legislative,  Ireland  has  a  share  in  the 
government  of  the  United  Kingdom  just  like  that  of 
the  other  parts:  government  rests  upon  parliament, 
which  consists  substantially  of  members  elected  by  the 
people,  and  to  this  representative  body,  the  House  of 
Commons,  Ireland  not  only  sends  delegates,  but 
whereas  her  population  entitles  her  to  sixty-five,  she 
has  been  allowed  to  keep  one  hundred  and  three,  to 
whom  two  more  have  recently  been  added;  upon  the 
majority  in  this  House  of  Commons  rests  the  ministry, 
which  controls  the  administrative  and  executive  work 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  this  majority  may  be 
made  up  of  Irish  members  as  well  as  members  from 
Scotland  or  Wales  or  parts  of  England.  In  England 
it  is  often  argued  that  this  is  quite  fair,  since  here 
Ireland  has  what  other  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom 
possess;  and,  indeed,  there  could  be  no  proper  cause 
for  complaint  if  the  arrangement  were  approved  by 
the  Irish  people ;  but  most  of  them  do  not  approve  of 
it,  and  most  of  them  feel  that  however  fair  the  arrange- 
ment may  seem,  actually  their  interests  are  largely 
different  from  those  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
and  are  often  misunderstood  or  insufficiently  consid- 
ered, and  that  since  their  representation  is  so  much  a 
minority  in  respect  of  the  total  number  of  members  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  the  presence  of  their  members 
in  the  parliament  of  this  Kingdom  may  avail  them 
very  little. 

Those  who  dislike  the  present  system  go  farther. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND     229 

The  people  of  Great  Britain  really  do  have  self- 
government,  and  it  is  marvellously  well  contrived. 
Administration  and  executive  work  are  carried  on  by 
permanent  officials,  who  are  subject  to  the  direction 
of  certain  heads  of  the  departments  in  which  these 
officials  are  grouped,  the  more  important  of  these 
heads  making  up  the  cabinet.  They  sit  in  parliament, 
are  responsible  to  it,  and  are  dependent  for  continu- 
ance in  power  upon  the  support  of  a  majority  of  the 
Commons.  If  they  do  not  keep  the  approval  of  a 
majority  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  they 
bring  about  a  general  election,  and  abide  then  by  the 
decision  of  the  voters.  This  is  one  of  the  most  admir- 
able systems  of  democratic,  representative  self-govern- 
ment which  has  ever  been  devised,  and  it  has  been 
copied  more  than  any  other  system  where  civilized 
peoples  have  remodelled  their  governments  in  recent 
times — until  the  Russian  revolution.  But  to  many 
Irishmen  it  does  not  seem  that  their  affairs  are 
administered  so. 

In  England  the  executive  is  the  cabinet  under  the 
prime  minister;  in  Ireland  it  is  nominally  the  lord 
lieutenant,  actually  the  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland. 
The  lord  lieutenant  is  the  representative  of  the  king 
in  Ireland.  Once,  when  the  British  monarch  was  the 
principal  power  in  the  state,  as  he  was  two  centuries 
ago,  the  lord  lieutenant  was  the  principal  officer  in 
Ireland;  but  as  in  process  of  time  the  power  of  the 
king  in  England  has  been  taken  by  parliament,  to  be 
administered  by  the  cabinet  dependent  upon  a 


230          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

majority  in  the  Commons,  until  the  king  now  has  little 
real  power,  and  finds  his  most  important  functions  in 
being  head  of  the  social  system  and  symbol  of  a  past 
much  revered,  so  the  lord  lieutenant  in  Dublin  has 
come  to  be  but  a  great  social  figure,  a  symbol  of  the 
government,  possessing  the  shadow,  not  the  substance, 
of  power.  In  Great  Britain  the  sovereign,  if  he  is  a 
person  of  strong  character  and  dominating  person- 
ality, can  influence  the  government,  and  so  in  like 
case  can  the  lord  lieutenant  in  Ireland;  but  usually 
that  is  all.  There  have  been  various  proposals  to 
abolish  the  office  of  the  viceroy  as  useless,  and  this 
may  be  done.  As  in  Britain  at  any  particular  time 
the  real  ruler  is  the  prime  minister,  so  in  Ireland  actual 
power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Chief  Secretary  for  Ire- 
land. The  lord  lieutenant,  a  figure-head,  resides  in 
the  capital  of  Ireland;  the  Secretary,  the  real  center 
of  power,  spends  some  time  in  Ireland,  but  usually 
nine  months  of  the  year  in  England.  As  the  prime 
minister  with  a  majority  in  the  Commons  is,  within 
the  bounds  of  law,  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  so  the  Irish  Secretary,  an  important 
minister,  closely  associated  with  the  cabinet,  is  sup- 
ported by  the  same  parliamentary  majority,  shares 
the  authority  of  the  ministry,  and  is  supreme  in  the 
government  of  Ireland.  If  the  Irish  people  were  as 
truly  united  with  the  other  peoples  of  the  Kingdom 
as  the  Scotch  are  with  the  English,  the  peculiar  powers 
of  the  Irish  Secretary  would  probably  long  since  have 
disappeared.  At  Westminster  he  guides  the  manage- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND     231 

ment  of  Irish  affairs;  in  Dublin  he  governs  through 
the  Boards,  which  carry  on  the  administrative  work 
of  the  island.  They  are  centered  about  Dublin  Castle, 
and  because  of  arbitrary  tyranny  in  the  past  and  Irish 
disapproval  in  the  present  and  the  fact  that  these 
officials  do  not  represent  the  sentiments  of  the 
majority  of  the  people,  "Castle  Rule"  and  "the 
Castle"  are  words  of  opprobrium  and  dislike.  "Tell 
me  dhis,"  says  Matthew  in  one  of  Shaw's  plays,  "have 
yanny  Coercion  Acs  in  England?  Have  you  Dublin 
Castle  to  suppress  every  newspaper  dhat  takes  the 
part  o  your  own  counthry?"  l  Hostile  critics  declare 
that  the  Castle  is  the  stronghold  of  what  remains  of 
the  ancient  regime  in  the  island. 

Many  are  the  objections  made  to  this  system. 
Here  is  an  executive  not  directly,  and  usually  not  at 
all,  dependent  upon  an  Irish  majority  for  his  power. 
The  executive  work  is  carried  out  under  him  through 
the  various  Boards.  Opponents  declare  that  there  are 
sixty-seven  of  them,  and  that  an  official  principally 
interested  in  British  politics  and  resident  in  Ireland 
only  three  or  more  months  of  the  year  cannot  possibly 
familiarize  himself  with  their  work,  and  thus  really 
grasp  the  administration  of  Irish  business.  But  it 
has  been  pointed  out  that  so  large  a  number  can  only 
be  alleged  by  counting  what  are  really  subdivisions 
and  subordinate  parts,  and  that  the  Secretary  has  but 
seven  important  Irish  departments  to  deal  with,  and 
that  he  has  parliamentary  responsibility  for  only  five 

i  John  Bull's  Other  Island,  act  iii. 


232    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

or  six.  In  carrying  out  his  work  the  Secretary  has 
behind  him  the  army  and  navy  of  Britain,  and  also 
armed  forces  subject  to  his  direction  in  Ireland  itself. 
It  is  he  who  appoints  the  police.  Numerous  coercion 
acts  have  given  him  wide  and  extraordinary  powers  to 
arrest  on  suspicion  and  imprison.  He  appoints  the 
judges  of  the  county  courts  and  of  the  higher  courts; 
and  magistrates  make  reports  about  their  districts  to 
him. 

The  laws  which  affect  Ireland  are  passed  not  in  an 
Irish  legislature  but  in  the  parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom.  The  Irish  object  that  such  a  body  is  not 
representative  of  them,  that  it  has  scant  time  properly 
to  consider  issues  affecting  them,  and  even  when  it 
considers  them  cannot  know  them  very  well.  Here, 
they  say,  is  a  government  not  really  based  upon  their 
wishes  or  their  votes,  and  carried  out  by  an  executive 
who  may  be  just  and  may  be  efficient,  though  they 
think  he  is  neither,  but  who  in  any  event  is  not  depen- 
dent upon  their  approval,  and  not  subject  to  their 
censure  or  dismissal.  They  say,  moreover,  that  there 
is  an  excessive  number  of  well-paid  officials,  who  vir- 
tually constitute  an  alien  governing  class  which  rules 
with  lofty  superiority  and  contempt  and  that  the  gov- 
ernment thus  imposed  upon  them  is  burdensome  and 
expensive.  They  declare  that  Ireland  has  no  real 
self-government.  It  may  be  observed  that  a  former 
Under- Secretary  for  Ireland  asserted  that  he  had 
gone  to  Ireland  with  an  open  mind,  and,  he  thought, 
free  from  bias,  but  that  he  quickly  realized  "that  the 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND     233 

system  was  deficient  and  cumbersome,  and  that  the 
gulf  which  yawned  between  the  people  and  the  Gov- 
ernment could  only  be  bridged  by  associating  the  peo- 
ple with  the  government  of  their  own  affairs."  2 

That  the  majority  of  the  Irish  people  are  opposed 
to  this  arrangement  there  can  be  little  doubt,  and  that 
it  involves  a  great  many  things  which  would  not  be 
tolerated  in  England  or  Scotland  is  certainly  true. 
But  he  who  thinks  that  here  is  an  abominable  rule 
maintained  by  the  English  people  for  the  oppression 
of  the  Irish  is  mistaken,  as  is  he  who  believes  that  Eng- 
lishmen after  struggling  so  long  to  obtain  political 
freedom  for  themselves  wish  to  deny  it  to  their  breth- 
ren in  Ireland.  Actually  England  attempts  now  to 
give  Ireland  that  kind  of  government  which  she  has 
herself,  and  while  there  are  striking  and  odious  differ- 
ences, these  differences  have  arisen  through  special 
circumstances  existing  in  Ireland,  with  which  it  has 
been  difficult  to  deal.  There  have  been  coercion  acts 
and  special  powers  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish  Secretary 
because  of  the  agrarian  crime  and  rural  disorder,  at 
times  very  prevalent,  and  which,  however  they  may  be 
explained  or  excused  in  view  of  the  miserable  condi- 
tions from  which  they  arose,  had  nevertheless  to  be 
dealt  with.  It  is  true,  the  Irish  Secretary  is  not 
dependent  upon  the  wishes  of  the  Irish  people,  and 
not  necessarily  responsive  to  them,  but,  then,  no  more 
necessarily  is  the  prime  minister  dependent  upon  the 
people  of  Scotland,  nor  can  the  people  of  Wales  con- 

2  Sir  West  Ridgeway,  quoted  in  The  ABC  Home  Rule  Handbook, 
p.  80. 


234          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

trol  him  as  they  might  wish,  nor  can  great  parts  of  the 
English  people ;  nay,  there  have  been  prime  ministers 
and  cabinets  who  have  carried  out  measures  displeas- 
ing to  the  majority  of  the  English  people,  these 
cabinets  being  based  upon  a  majority  of  the  House 
of  Commons  chosen  from  all  of  the  British  Isles,  made 
up  of  representatives  elected  by  voters  in  Scotland, 
Ireland,  and  Wales,  and  a  minority  of  the  electors  in 
England.  It  is  unfortunate  that  these  things  must 
be,  but  they  are  the  defects  of  the  majority  principle 
in  the  representative  system,  and  no  real  remedy  has 
yet  been  found  to  avoid  them.  As  things  are  the 
minority  must  acquiesce,  biding  its  time  until  it  can 
be  in  the  majority.  It  is  true  that  the  Irish  members 
are  decidedly  a  minority  in  the  entire  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  thus  the  House  of  Commons  could  always 
do  things  whether  the  Irish  members  approved  of 
them  or  not.  But  what  it  is  important  to  understand 
is  that  the  Irish  members  stand  in  the  parliament  of 
the  United  Kingdom  on  the  same  footing  as  the  mem- 
bers from  Wales  and  Scotland  and  from  the  various 
parts  of  England,  the  principal  difference  being  that 
in  the  House  of  Commons  they  have  a  great  many 
more  members  than  their  diminished  population 
entitles  them  to  have — they  are  over-represented,  not 
under-represented;  and  that  if  laws  often  are  passed 
of  which  they  disapprove,  so  do  they  sometimes  assist 
in  passing  measures  to  which  the  majority  of  the 
English  or  the  Scottish  peoples  may  be  opposed,  but 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND     235 

to  which  nevertheless  these  peoples  submit  loyally,  and 
without  desiring  to  change  the  whole  system. 

After  all,  these  things  seem  right  or  wrong  accord- 
ing to  the  point  of  view,  or  with  respect  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  and  not  as  the  result  of  any  verbal 
statement  or  reasoned  exposition.  They  suit  the 
English  people  and  work  well  with  them,  and  so  with 
the  Scottish  and  the  Welsh  for  the  most  part.  Once 
they  did  not  suit  a  great  many  of  the  Scots,  but  in 
course  of  time  their  objections  have  vanished.  With 
respect  to  Ireland  there  is  not  much  inherently  unjust 
or  unsuitable  about  the  arrangement,  and  if  the  Irish 
people  had  in  the  past  been  united  in  spirit  and 
interests  with  the  British  people  most  probably  they 
would  have  no  objection  now.  But  here  is  one  of 
the  great  failures  of  Britain:  she  has  not  won  the 
Irish ;  and  now  they  are  averse  from  the  system  which 
she  has  and  wishes  to  share  with  them,  and  often  she 
is  not  able  to  make  it  work  with  them  except  by 
coercion  and  force. 

It  is  but  fair  to  say  also  that  while  the  best  opinion 
in  Great  Britain  now  favors  the  granting  of  Home 
Rule  to  Ireland  if  the  greater  number  of  the  Irish 
people  desire  it,  yet,  except  for  the  strong  national 
feeling  which  has  been  aroused,  it  would  not  neces- 
sarily be  in  defiance  of  justice,  and  not  undoubtedly 
against  the  best  interests  of  all,  if  the  present  connec- 
tion were  continued.  These  matters  we  cannot  surely 
decide;  similar  things  when  decided  one  way  or  the 


236    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

other  in  the  past  have  later  on  been  thought  settled 
for  the  best.  We  believe  it  was  well  that  we  were 
able  to  separate  from  England;  the  Canadians  now 
are  certain  it  was  best  that  they  failed  to  do  so.  We 
have  had  such  problems  ourselves.  Once  upon  a  time 
it  would  have  been  quite  in  accord  with  the  law  if 
parts  of  our  country  had  withdrawn  themselves  from 
the  Union,  though  there  are  few  people  in  the  United 
States  now  who  do  not  rejoice  that  such  schemes  in 
New  England  and  elsewhere  came  to  naught.  The 
middle  part  of  the  history  of  the  United  States  is 
largely  engrossed  with  the  gradual  drawing  apart  in 
spirit  and  interests  of  the  North  and  the  South.  At 
last  Americans  fought  one  of  the  greatest  of  wars  to 
settle  this  matter.  It  is  well  to  remember  that  few 
of  the  arguments  advanced  to  support  the  justice  of 
the  contentions  of  those  who  desire  Home  Rule  were 
not  put  forward  by  Southern  statesmen,  to  support 
their  right  to  set  up  a  government  of  their  own;  and 
some  of  the  ablest  of  the  old  school  of  Southern  his- 
torians have  with  much  justice  taken  the  ground  that 
the  Southern  people  were  fighting  a  war  of  liberation 
against  the  North,  just  as  the  American  colonists  had 
once  tried  to  liberate  themselves  in  the  Revolutionary 
War  against  England.  The  followers  of  Washington 
succeeded,  and  their  descendants  are  certain  that  they 
were  right;  Davis  and  Lee  and  the  others  failed;  their 
opponents  believed  that  war  had  sealed  a  bad  cause; 
they  themselves  felt  that  right  had  failed;  just  as  the 
beaten  loyalists  of  the  American  Revolution  were  sure 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND    237 

that  injustice  and  error  had  triumphed.  But  now  at 
last  most  people  North  and  South  are  glad  that  the 
Union  was  preserved.  It  is,  I  believe,  the  same  with 
Ireland.  If  Home  Rule  is  not  given,  and  the  present 
system  is  maintained  for  the  most  part,  with  its  objec- 
tionable features  withdrawn,  as  circumstances  permit 
this  to  be  done,  if  the  economic  prosperity  of  Ireland 
continues  to  develop,  and  if  nationalism  and  Sinn 
Fein  can  be  directed  along  such  lines  as  nationality 
has  taken  in  Scotland  and  Wales,  it  is  most  probable 
that  a  new  generation  of  Irishmen  later  on  will  no 
longer  desire  Home  Rule,  and  not  feel  that  a  wrong 
was  done,  when  such  a  government  was  not  granted  to 
their  fathers,  no  more  than  the  Scots  or  the  Welsh. 
If  Home  Rule  is  given,  as  it  probably  will  be,  to  all 
of  Ireland  or  to  part,  there  will  anyhow  after  a  while 
be  closer  drawing  together  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, brought  about  by  better  recognition  of  their 
common  interests. 

Accordingly,  with  respect  to  the  interests  of  all 
concerned  in  the  British  Isles,  the  chief  argument 
for  the  justice  of  Home  Rule  is  not  that  Ireland  is 
administered  by  a  governmental  system  which  is 
intrinsically  bad,  for  obviously  that  is  not  so,  how- 
ever much  may  be  needed  certain  changes  in  detail; 
nor  is  such  argument,  perhaps,  that  most  of  the  Irish 
people  desire  it  at  present,  since  however  just  secession 
or  some  form  of  local  control  may  seem  to  those  who 
desire  it,  partial  or  entire  separation  may  be  unjust 
to  those  from  whom  the  separation  is  planned,  and 


238          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

then  must  not  be  permitted  to  take  place.  Not  infre- 
quently a  community  wishes  to  go  by  itself.  Not  only 
did  South  Carolina  threaten  secession  and  at  last  put 
it  into  effect,  but,  it  may  be  recalled,  at  one  time  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War  New  York  City  desired  to  secede 
and  establish  a  separate  commonwealth.  Rather  the 
justification  for  Home  Rule  is  that  in  the  future  it 
may  be  better  in  the  interests  of  all  of  the  British  Isles 
if  the  vast  mass  of  business  which  concerns  them,  and 
which  now  crushes  the  parliament  and  the  ministry  of 
the  Empire  under  an  intolerable  load,  can  be  devolved 
upon  subordinate  local  governments  for  the  different 
parts,  Scotland,  Wales,  even  different  portions  of 
England,  as  well  as  on  Ireland  or  parts  thereof. 

But  since  the  Irish  recently  have  not  felt  that  their 
interests  are  close  enough  to  those  of  the  rest  of  the 
United  Kingdom  to  make  the  system  of  government 
which  does  so  well  for  Great  Britain  well  suited  for 
them,  they  have  been  able  from  their  side  to  erect  a 
powerful  argument.  They  say  that  actually  the  Irish 
executive  is  not  responsible  to  Irish  opinion,  except 
that  part  of  it  which  is  contained  in  the  Department  of 
Agriculture.  All  the  other  departments,  through 
which  Irish  government  is  administered,  are  not  amen- 
able to  the  Irish  people,  in  any  certain  or  direct  man- 
ner. Unless  there  can  be  responsibility  of  all  of  them 
to  a  representative  Irish  body,  there  can  be  no  real 
democratic  government  in  Ireland;  and  under  the 
present  system  there  is  always  coercion,  whether  active 
and  overt  or  merely  indirect  and  silent. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND     239 

So,  it  will  be  seen  that  here  is  the  old  story,  often  a 
tragic  one,  of  real  difference  of  opinion  and  apparent 
irreconcilability  of  interest,  where  at  their  best  both 
parties  mean  to  do  right,  and  from  their  own  points  of 
view  are  each  of  them  right.  In  such  a  conflict  the 
issue  can  be  decided  either  by  force,  and  then  the 
operation  of  time,  or  by  mutual  forbearance  and 
justice,  by  conciliation  and  wisdom.  Home  Rule  or 
something  equivalent  is  probably  coming  to  Ireland 
soon  enough  now,  not  because  as  a  matter  of  political 
science  it  is  essentially  wrong  for  Ireland  not  to  have 
it,  nor  as  a  matter  of  politics  because  Ireland  can  com- 
pel the  granting  of  it,  but  because  it  is  of  the  nature 
of  the  great  British  democracy  to  desire  to  assist  and 
propagate  free  government  resting  on  the  wishes  of 
the  governed.  It  will  be  seen  later  on  that  so  far  as 
Home  Rule  is  concerned,  the  principal  obstacles  no 
longer  arise  from  Great  Britain.  But  I  shall  like- 
wise have  to  show  that  at  present  the  dominant  feel- 
ing in  Ireland  is  nationalism  not  politics,  and  that 
the  great  issue  at  the  time  of  my  writing  is  not  Home 
Rule  but  complete  independence. 

It  should  be  said  in  conclusion  that  full  control  has 
been  given  to  the  Irish  people  of  their  local  affairs,  as 
full  as  in  England.  This  was  given  recently,  but  only 
a  little  later  than  to  the  people  of  England  themselves. 
It  is  well  known  that  in  England  in  early  times  an 
admirable  system  of  local  government  was  developed, 
wherein  the  counties  or  the  parishes  controlled  to  a 
great  extent  the  administration  of  their  own  affairs, 


240    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

and  did  not  soon  become,  as  in  France,  subject  to  con- 
stant direction  and  control  by  the  central  government. 
Much  the  same  system  was  developed  in  Ireland. 
But  while  there  was  local  government,  this  govern- 
ment was  not  for  the  most  part  democratic  govern- 
ment except  sometimes  in  the  parishes  with  respect  to 
very  petty  affairs.  Local  power  in  England  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  squirearchy  or  country  gentlemen, 
and  was  exercised  through  the  justices  of  the  peace. 
Slowly  in  the  nineteenth  century  their  powers  were 
taken  from  them,  and  in  1888  the  system  was  brought 
to  an  end,  when  an  act  was  passed  establishing  elective 
county  councils  for  the  administration  of  local  affairs. 
Similarly,  in  Ireland  the  local  gentry  and  landlords 
had  control  of  local  government,  which  they  exercised 
through  the  grand  juries,  which  were  nominated  by 
the  sheriffs  from  the  local  gentry.  This  was  ended 
by  the  Irish  Local  Government  Act  of  1898,  which 
took  from  the  landlords  their  political  powers,  at  the 
very  time  that  land  purchase  was  depriving  them  of 
their  social  and  economic  importance.  The  Irish 
grand  juries  now  lost  their  administrative  functions, 
government  of  the  counties  being  given  to  elective 
councils.  There  was  much  protest  against  the  making 
of  this  reform  in  Ireland,  and  much  fear  was  expressed 
that  the  powers  conferred  would  be  grossly  abused, 
and  that  the  political  inexperience  of  the  people  would 
entail  certain  failure.  Actually  the  results  have  been 
excellent.  There  have  been  mistakes,'  and  it  is  not 
hard  to  discover  defects;  but  on  the  whole  local 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  IRELAND     241 

administration  has  been  cheap  and  efficient.  Advo- 
cates of  Home  Rule  point  to  this  eagerly  as  vindica- 
tion of  their  contentions  that  the  Irish  people  will  rule 
themselves  wisely  under  their  own  prime  minister  and 
parliament.  Like  the  English  women  suffragists  of 
the  last  decade  they  maintain  that  if  they  have  demon- 
strated their  fitness  in  local  government,  they  have 
given  earnest  of  their  fitness  to  manage  national 
affairs.  And  if  it  is  remembered  that  the  numerous 
co-operative  societies  of  the  I.  A.  O.  S.  manage  their 
affairs  through  committees  elected  by  the  members, 
"we  shall  see -that  in  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century  Ireland  acquired  a  system  of  local  self-govern- 
ment which  in  variety  of  range  and  breadth  of  function 
goes  even  beyond  the  system  which  exists  in  Eng- 
land." 3  Irish  self-government,  whatever  its  extent  in 
the  future,  is  being  placed  on  a  solid  foundation. 

s  Barker,  p.  95. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   HOME   RULE 

From  the  first  moment  the  Irish  people  was  granted  an 
articulate  political  voice  it  pronounced  by  a  majority  of  four 
to  one  of  its  representatives  in  favour  of  Home  Rule.  That 
verdict  was  repeated  substantially  in  the  same  proportions 
in  1886  and  in  1892,  and  when  Mr.  Gladstone  spoke  in  1893 
he  had  in  support  of  the  proposition  that  "Ireland  demands 
Home  Rule"  the  evidence  of  three  successive  General  Elec- 
tions. 

Since  then  nearly  twenty  years  have  passed,  and  from  the 
date  of  the  extension  of  the  Franchise  in  1884  we  have  had 
eight  General  Elections.  The  fortunes  of  parties  in  this 
House  have  during  that  time  ebbed  and  flowed ;  Governments 
have  come  and  gone ;  great  personalities  have  filled  the  scene, 
and  passed  away.  We  have  had  as  a  nation  peace  and  war, 
adversity  and  prosperity,  shifting  issues,  changing  policies ; 
but  throughout  the  welter  and  confusion,  amid  all  the  vary- 
ing phases  and  fields  of  our  electoral  and  Parliamentary 
campaigns,  one  thing  has  remained  constant,  subject  neither 
to  eclipse  nor  wane,  the  insistence  and  persistence  of  the  Irish 
demand. 

Mr.  Asquith  in  the  House  of  Commons,  April  11,  1912. 

IN  after  days  it  seemed  to  Irishmen  that  the  misery 
and  subjection  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  were  brought  to  an  end  when  an  independ- 
ent parliament  was  established  for  a  while  after  1782. 
Some  looked  back  upon  Grattan's  period  as  a  golden 

242 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE     243 

age;  others,  who  understood  that  in  these  years  there 
was  many  a  failure,  believed  none  the  less  that  if  only 
an  Irish  parliament  had  endured  longer,  if  only  the 
Irish  people  had  been  given  full  chance  to  work  out 
their  destiny,  in  time  all  of  the  difficulties  would  have 
been  overcome,  and  Ireland  made  prosperous  and  well. 
After  the  Act  of  Union  there  were  always  many  who 
did  not  love  it,  and  when  in  course  of  time  it  was  seen 
that  though  some  grievances  were  removed  others 
remained,  there  were  many  who  desired  separation 
partial  or  complete.  When  O'Connell  had  gained 
Catholic  emancipation,  he  began  a  movement  for 
repeal  of  the  Union,  but  this  effort  collapsed  just 
before  the  great  famine  took  all  the  heart  out  of  Ire- 
land. It  was  carried  forward  again  by  the  Young 
Ireland  Party  and  afterwards  by  the  Fenians,  who 
desired  independence  or  complete  separation,  and  who 
tried  to  accomplish  their  aims  by  rebellion  and  assassi- 
nation and  terror.  Stern  and  determined  opposition 
from  England  caused  their  agitation  to  die  out  after 
a  while.  Gradually  it  was  succeeded  by  something 
milder  and  less  extreme,  destined  for  a  long  time  to 
be  much  more  important. 

There  had  all  along  been  moderate  spirits  like  Arch- 
bishop McHale,  who  opposed  rebellion  and  believed 
separation  from  Great  Britain  impracticable,  and  who 
therefore  discountenanced  movements  like  that  of 
Young  Ireland,  but  who  wanted  some  sort  of  autono- 
mous government  erected.  Such  ideas  attained  more 
prominence  when  in  1870  there  was  founded  in  Dublin 


244    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

a  Home  Government  Association  of  Ireland,  in  which 
Liberals  and  Conservatives,  Protestants  and  Catholics 
united  to  support  the  getting  of  Irish  self-government. 
They  desired  an  Irish  parliament  which  should  control 
Irish  internal  affairs,  with  Ireland  continuing  to  be 
represented  in  the  parliament  at  Westminster.  In 
1873  the  new  -association  was  reconstituted  as  the 
Home  Rule  League.  In  the  general  election  next 
year  Irish  constituencies  returned  to  parliament  some 
sixty  members  to  advocate  its  policy  of  Home  Rule. 
Their  leader  was  Isaac  Butt,  who  had  entered  parlia- 
ment in  1871.  His  program  was  explained  in  a 
pamphlet  entitled  Irish  Federalism,  which  he  had  pub- 
lished the  year  before.  He  declared  that  it  was  not 
possible  to  repeal  the  Act  of  Union,  and  that  this  was 
neither  necessary  nor  desirable.  But  England  might 
safely  grant  a  subordinate  parliament,  which  was  all 
that  Ireland  needed  for  the  full  development  of  her 
national  life.  In  a  feder.al  union,  he  said,  she  would 
be  better  off  than  with  a  parliament  completely  inde- 
pendent, since  she  might  still  share  in  imperial  con- 
cerns through  her  representation  in  the  parliament  at 
London.  He  said,  what  has  come  to  be  believed  by 
many  Liberal  statesmen  of  the  present  generation, 
that  the  resulting  division  of  labor  would  be  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  all,  since  the  House  of  Commons,  as  things 
were,  was  much  overworked,  while  Irish  and  Scottish 
affairs  were  neglected  nevertheless.  The  pamphlets 
of  the  Home  Rule  League  won  the  majority  of  Irish- 
men who  considered  the  matter,  but  in  England  little 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    245 

attention  was  gained.  Butt  was  genial  in  temper,  not 
favoring  violence  or  force,  an  able  thinker,  and  a  fine, 
scholarly  man,  but  without  the  dominating  character 
and  the  arts  of  leadership  which  guide  political  forces. 
He  formulated  the  Home  Rule  program,  but  he  got 
no  attention  in  parliament ;  and  it  was  left  to  others  to 
take  up  his  ideas  and  make  a  great  issue  from  them. 
After  a  while  there  was  division  in  the  Home  Rule 
ranks,  and  the  minority  followed  a  new  leader  with 
character  strikingly  different. 

Charles  Stewart  Parnell  is  the  dominant  figure  in 
Irish  history  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, as  O'Connell  was  in  the  earlier.  He  was  of 
English  descent,  an  aristocrat  by  temperament  and 
birth.  So  far  as  he  adhered  to  religious  creed  he  was 
a  Protestant.  Some  have  compared  him  with  Dean 
Swift,  who  turned  upon  England  from  personal 
hatred  and  because  of  anger  at  oppression.  From  his 
mother  he  had  taken  an  intense  hatred  of  Englishmen, 
which  events  in  Irelajid  raised  to  a  quenchless  fire. 
He  was  cold,  undemonstrative,  almost  repellent,  but 
with  strange  and  unexplainable  power  over  those 
whom  he  led,  and  he  had  an  unyielding  strength  and 
tenacity  of  purpose.  "P.  extraordinarily  close, 
tenacious,  and  sharp,"  says  one  who  saw  him.  He 
"went  on  repeating  his  points  in  his  impenetrable 
way."  1  Parnell  took  up  the  Home  Rule  movement 
and  changed  its  methods  entirely. 

His  plan  was   parliamentary  obstruction  in  the 

i  Morley,  Life  of  Gladstone,  iii.  305,  306. 


246    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

House  of  Commons.  He  would  follow  all  parlia- 
mentary rules,  but  within  those  rules  he  would  harass 
and  obstruct  as  much  a?s  he  could.  The  great  electoral 
reforms  had  not  yet  greatly  changed  the  character  of 
the  Commons.  It  was  still  to  a  great  extent  the 
stronghold  of  precedent  and  procedure,  conservative 
and  aristocratic  in  opinion.  In  this  body  Parnell 
attempted  to  get  consideration  for  Ireland.  His  plan 
was  to  work  in  government  time,  help  anyone  to  waste 
government  time,  block  all  business,  and  hurt  and 
embitter  his  opponents.  He  and  his  followers  spoke 
on  any  subject  -at  any  time  as-  long -as  they  could,  and 
relieved  each  other  to  be  sure  that  the  work  should  not 
cease.  He  had  little  ability  for  speaking  at  first,  and 
his  delivery  sounded  much  like  a  series  of  hissings,  but 
by  application  and  sheer  strength  of  will  he  succeeded 
in  becoming,  if  not  a  great  orator,  a  powerful  speaker. 
Gladstone  declared  that  he  was  able  to  do  what  few 
speakers  accomplish,  say  what  he  meant.  His  longer 
speeches  left  the  "  impression  from  a  grey  and  sunless 
day  in  which  everything  shows  clear  but  also-  hard  and 
cold."  2  Hitherto  in  the  Houses  Irish  affairs  had  been 
ignored  politely ;  but  now  Parnell,  if  he  could  not  get 
attention  for  them,  would  pay  attention,  and  much 
unwelcome  attention,  to  British  affairs,  harassing  and 
delaying  and  striving  to  prevent  anything  being 
accomplished.  He  was  soon  joined  by  one  after 
another  of  the  Home  Rule  members. 

2  Quoted  by  Shane  Leslie,   The  Irish  Issue  in  Its  American  Aspect 
(New  York,  1917),  p.  58. 


In  1877  he  was  elected  president  of  the  Home  Rule 
Federation  of  Great  Britain.  Like  O'Connell,  he 
declared  himself  opposed  to  the  use  of  force,  but 
gradually  he  allied  himself  with  such  of  the  Fenians 
as  would  support  parliamentary  agitation.  He  gave 
attention  to  the  land  question,  as  was  necessary  for 
any  Irish  leader  at  that  time.  In  1880  he  was  made 
president  of  the  Land  League,  founded  the  year 
before,  and  became  actually  head  of  the  Irish  party 
and  leader  of  the  agrarian  revolt  which  was  directed 
against  evictions  and  rackrents,  and  intended  to  obtain 
ownership  of  the  soil  for  those  who  occupied  and  paid 
rent. 

Account  has  elsewhere  been  given  of  the  land  war, 
the  boycott,  the  disturbances,  and  the  coercion  meas- 
ures which  followed.  The  Land  Act  of  1881  gave 
little  satisfaction  in  Ireland.  Parnell  and  some  of  his 
followers  were  put  in  Kilmainham  prison,  for  attempt- 
ing to  bring  about  through  intimidation  the  failure 
of  its  operation.  In  the  next  year  an  arrangement 
was  made  between  Gladstone  and  himself,  known  as 
the  Kilmainham  Treaty,  by  which  Parnell  agreed  to 
stay  the  agitation  in  Ireland  in  return  for  certain  con- 
cessions. Scarcely  had  he  been  released  when  two  of 
the  important  English  officials  in  Ireland  were  mur- 
dered in  broad  daylight  in  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin,  by 
some  of  the  irreconcilable  Fenians.  Parnell  repudi- 
ated the  deed,  offering  to  resign  his  leadership  of  the 
Home  Rule  party,  but  Gladstone  refused  to  blame 
him;  one  of  the  severest  of  all  the  coercion  acts  was 


248    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

passed,  however,  and  England  made  no  more  conces- 
sions for  a  while.  Ireland  was  ruled  now  with  an  iron 
hand.  The  extreme  Fenians  strove  to  create  terror  in 
England,  to  set  London  afire  some  windy  night,  to 
blow  up  with  dynamite  the  Houses  of  Parliament  and 
the  Tower  of  London.  Parnell  severed  all  connec- 
tion with  them. 

Meanwhile  his  popularity  and  power  increased  in 
Ireland,  and  he  was  all  the  time  more  hated  and  feared 
in  the  Commons.  He  held  together  the  members  of 
his  party  as  they  had  never  been  held  before.  His 
power  was  increased  as  a  result  of  the  Electoral 
Reform  Law  of  1884,  by  which  the  franchise  was 
extended  to  householders  and  lodgers  in  Ireland  as 
well  as  in  England,  for  the  electorate  was  largely 
increased,  and  the  new  voters  supported  the  policy  of 
Parnell.  In  the  general  election  of  1885  out  of  a  total 
Irish  representation  of  one  hundred  and  three,  eighty- 
five  members  were  elected  on  strict  pledge  to  follow  his 
lead. 

During  this  time  Gladstone,  leader  of  the  Liberal 
Party  in  England,  had  gradually  been  won  over  to  the 
view  that  greater  concessions  must  be  made  to  the 
Irish.  He  had  already  begun  land  legislation,  and 
he  favored  land  purchase,  though  this  was  taken  up  by 
the  Conservatives  and  carried  still  further.  He 
thought  it  necessary  to  satisfy  more  completely  the 
desires  of  the  Irish,  if  the  peace  and  good  order  of 
Ireland  were  ever  to  be  secured.  In  the  election  of 
1885,  in  which  Parnell1  secured  such  a  notable  triumph, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    249 

and  in  which  the  great  majority  of  the  Irish  made  it 
clear  that  they  wanted  Home  Rule  and  approved  their 
leader's  methods  in  trying  to  get  it,  Gladstone  took 
care,  as  was  his  wont,  not  to  commit  himself  very 
definitely,  though  he  declared  that  whatever  was  done 
for  Ireland,  the  unity  of  the  Empire  must  be  pre- 
served. In  this  election  the  Liberals  triumphed,  and 
soon  after  it  was  announced  that  Gladstone  was  pre- 
pared to  support  a  measure  for  Home  Rule.  When 
he  formed  his  third  ministry  now,  some  of  his  associ- 
ates dropped  away  from  him,  resolved  to  oppose  such 
a  step.  This  was  the  time  when  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill  fomented  and  led  opposition  in  Ulster,  with 
results  so  profoundly  important  later  on.  It  was  at 
this  time  also  that  the  term  "Unionist"  took  its  place 
in  political  usage. 

In  April,  1886,  an  Irish  Government  Bill  was 
brought  in.  It  provided  for  the  establishment  of  an 
Irish  parliament,  which  might  impose  taxes  and  legis- 
late for  Ireland,  though  certain  powers  were  with- 
held from  it,  especially  the  levying  of  customs  and 
excise.  The  lord  lieutenant  was  to  be  appointed  by 
the  crown  as  before.  Ireland  was  to  contribute  one- 
fifteenth  of  the  Imperial  expenses.  The  unity  of  the 
Empire  was  to  be  maintained,  with  the  Parliament  of 
the  United  Kingdom  legislating  upon  matters  of 
general  concern.  In  this  parliament  Ireland  was  no 
longer  to  have  representation,  a  feature  of  the 
bill  widely  criticised,  concerning  which  Gladstone 
admitted  that  much  might  be  said  contrary.  In  draw- 


250    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ing  up  this  measure  Darnell  was  constantly  consulted, 
and  though  not  content  with  all  the  provisions,  pro- 
claimed himself  satisfied  in  the  main. 

A  memorable  contest  followed.  The  Conserva- 
tives, assisted  now  by  prominent  Liberals  who  had  left 
the  party  on  the  Home  Rule  issue,  and  were  opposing 
it  as  Liberal  Unionists,  stirred  the  country  to  its 
depth.  All  of  Tory  prejudice  and  conservative  prin- 
ciple, all  the  dislike  of  Irishmen  as  inferior  and  law- 
less people,  all  the  bitterness  engendered  by  the  vio- 
lence and  ugliness  of  Parnell's  parliamentary  tactics, 
and  all  the  memories  of  Irish  crime,  the  memories  of 
Phoenix  Park  and  the  murdered  officials,  and  the  fear 
that  Home  Rule  would  mean  abandoning  loyal 
Protestant  Ulster  to  a  hostile  Catholic  Ireland,  were 
aroused  and  rallied  by  Lord  Salisbury,  Joseph 
Chamberlain,  Lord  Hartington,  and  even  the  aged 
John  Bright.  Against  these  forces  were  marshalled 
the  growing  liberalism  of  England  and  something  of 
the  great  democratic  feeling  that  was  beginning  to 
arise  from  the  widened  electorate,  together  with  a 
belief  that  the  only  alternative  to  Home  Rule  and 
satisfying  the  Irish  was  perpetual  coercion,  which 
might  succeed  easily  enough,  but  which  was  repug- 
nant to  the  better  feelings  of  the  new  England. 

This  was  the  triumphant  period  of  Parnell's  life. 
At  last  had  an  Irishman  persuaded  and  compelled  the 
British  political  leader  to  take  up  Ireland's  cause,  and 
there  seemed  some  chance  that  the  wishes  of  Ireland 
might  now  be  fulfilled.  But  it  was  not  to  be.  In  a 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    251 

crowded  and  breathless  House  Gladstone  made  a 
memorable  speech;  but  on  second  reading  the  Home 
Rule  bill  was  defeated,  a  strong  body  of  Liberals 
voting  with  the  Opposition.  Parliament  was  dis- 
solved, and  Gladstone  appealed  to  the  country.  The 
general  election  was  marked  by  intense  bitterness  in 
Great  Britain,  and  by  violence  and  loss  of  life  in  Ire- 
land. The  result  was  the  definitive  defeat  of  Glad- 
stone's first  attempt  to  give  Ireland  Home  Rule.  The 
Conservatives  triumphed,  and  Lord  Salisbury  began 
his  second  administration. 

Home  Rule  had  been  defeated,  but  from  1886  on  it 
was  destined  to  be  one  of  the  largest  issues  in  the 
politics  of  Great  Britain.  In  Ireland  violence  and 
agrarian  disorder  continued,  and  in  1887,  after  a  long 
series  of  acts  to  suspend  the  habeas  corpus  and  to  deal 
with  outrages  and  crime,  a  perpetual  coercion  act 
was  introduced,  which  is  still  in  force.  It  was  now 
that  the  London  Times  published  its  celebrated  articles 
"Parnellism  and  Crime,"  in  which  the  Irish  leader  was 
charged  with  violence  and  intimidation,  and  produced 
letters,  said  to  be  in  ParneU's  handwriting,  which 
seemed  to  connect  him  with  the  murders  in  Phoenix 
Park.  In  the  investigation  which  followed,  these  let- 
ters were  proved  to  be  forgeries,  and  in  the  triumph  of 
the  moment,  the  Irish  chieftain  reached  the  height  of 
his  career.  But  a  year  later,  in  1890,  he  was  named 
as  co-respondent  in  a  divorce  suit  brought  by  a  Cap- 
tain O'Shea.  And  now,  as  the  Liberal  Party  in 
England  had  been  split  in  the  struggle  about  the 


252    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

government  of  Ireland,  so  was  the  Irish  Nationalist 
Party,  which  followed  Parnell  with  such  devotion, 
broken  to  pieces.  A  minority  stayed  with  him,  but 
the  priests  fell  away  and  with  them  went  most  of  the 
Irish  members.  In  England  puritan  and  non-con- 
formist feeling  ran  strongly,  and  presently  Gladstone 
left  him  to  his  fate.  He  now  beqame  an  extremist, 
and  advocated  separation  from  England.  In  1891  he 
died,  crushed  with  disaster  and  burden.  For  a  while 
the  Nationalist  Party  was  divided  and  impotent:  the 
majority  had  chosen  Justin  McCarthy  as  leader;  those 
faithful  to  Parnell  followed  John  Redmond.  In 
course  of  time  the  division  was  closed,  and  Redmond 
became  the  successor  of  Parnell  as  leader  of  the  united 
Nationalist  Party. 

During  the  Salisbury  ministry  Ireland  was  gov- 
erned firmly,  while  the  Conservatives  applied  what  was 
now  their  favorite  device  in  Irish  matters,  the  improve- 
ment of  the  condition  of  the  peasant  through  assisting 
him  to  purchase  the  land.  In  the  general  election 
which  came  at  the  end  of  this  administration,  the 
Liberals  under  Gladstone  proposed  a  number  of 
reforms,  but  made  Home  Rule  again  the  great  issue. 
The  Conservatives  opposed  it,  advocating  the  exten- 
sion of  land  purchase  and  the  putting  of  local  govern- 
ment to  some  extent  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish  people. 
In  England  the  Conservatives  triumphed,  but  in  the 
United  Kingdom  Gladstone  obtained  a  majority  of 
members,  something  very  significant  for  the  future. 
Since  he  favored  Home  Rule  he  could  have  the  sup- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    253 

port  of  the  eighty-one  Irish  Nationalists,  and  so  he 
would  have  a  majority  of  forty  in  the  Commons.  In 
the  course  of  years  later  on,  sometimes  the  Liberals 
had  a  majority  of  their  own,  sometimes  they  had  it 
only  with  the  Irish  Nationalist  votes.  The  alliance 
was  to  be  most  important.  With  Irish  votes  the 
Liberals  were  to  carry  some  very  momentous  meas- 
ures, and  even  to  change  the  constitution  of  the  King- 
dom itself;  in  return  they  were  to  pass  for  the 
Nationalists  a  statute  of  Home  Rule. 

But  such  was  not  now  the  result.  In  1893  Glad- 
stone introduced  the  second  Home  Rule  Bill.  Again 
there  was  to  be  an  Irish  legislature  to  impose  taxes  and 
make  laws  for  Ireland,  with  certain  reservations  as  to 
religion  and  customs-duties  and  various  matters.  For 
the  minority,  especially  in  Ulster,  there  were  more 
elaborate  safeguards  than  before.  But  substantially 
Irish  legislation  and  administration  were  to  be  con- 
trolled by  the  Irish  people.  The  question  of  Irish 
representation  at  Westminster  was  a  difficult  one, 
as  it  had  been,  and  afterwards  was.  If  Irish  mem- 
bers were  excluded  and  revenue  exacted  by  London, 
then  there  was  taxation  without  representation.  If 
they  were  admitted,  then  Irish  members  would  be  al- 
lowed to  take  part  in  British  affairs,  while  the  people 
of  Britain  would  be  excluded  from  the  like  in  Ire- 
land. There  was  a  third  device,  and  this  was  what 
Gladstone  proposed,  that  Irish  representatives — 
eighty  was  the  number  suggested — should  be  admitted 
to  the  parliament  at  Westminster,  but  allowed  to  vote 


254 

only  on  Irish  matters  and  matters  of  general  concern, 
though  this  provision  was  changed  in  the  contest  en- 
suing. Again  there  was  the  greatest  bitterness  in 
England,  while  Redmond  avowed  that  the  bill  as  it 
was  would  not  satisfy  the  aspirations  of  Ireland.  It 
passed  the  Commons,  some  of  the  members  voting  for 
it  assured  that  it  would  be  denied  by  the  Lords.  And 
so  it  was,  for  on  the  second  reading  the  Lords  re- 
jected it,  419  to  41.  Actually  this  crushing  defeat 
brought  the  matter  to  an  end  for  twenty  years.  Glad- 
stone, who  had  been  the  great  champion  of  Home 
Rule  in  England,  like  John  Stuart  Mill  with  the 
cause  of  woman's  suffrage,  but  with  far  greater  po- 
litical power,  was  now  passing  from  public  life. 
When  the  issue  again  assumed  prominence  new  states- 
men had  come  forward. 

In  the  long  interval  which  followed,  Ireland  was 
more  peaceful  and  quiet  than  for  a  long  time.  Politi- 
cal activity  waned.  The  purchase  of  land  by  the  gov- 
ernment for  the  Irish  people,  and  the  splendid  work 
of  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organization  Society  largely 
occupied  men's  minds;  and  steady  economic  better- 
ment absorbed  the  attention  of  most  of  the  people. 
It  began  to  seem  that  Lord  Salisbury  was  right  when 
he  declared  that  strict  government  consistently  ap- 
plied for  twenty  years  would  make  an  Ireland  fit  to 
receive  the  gifts  which  England  might  deem  well  to 
confer.  For  a  while  there  had  been  stern  rule,  and 
then  wise  and  sympathetic  government,  and  all  the 
time  greater  and  greater  assistance  to  Irishmen  to 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    255 

get  their  own  farms  and  make  a  decent  and  comfort- 
able living.  With  Ireland  quiet  and  absorbed  in  so- 
cial and  economic  changes,  and  with  great  issues  de- 
veloping in  the  world  outside,  attention  was  taken 
from  Home  Rule,  and  the  question  seemed  to  grow 
less  important.  But  it  lived  on  in  the  hearts  of  Irish- 
men in  America,  who  would  not  be  reconciled  with 
England,  and  it  continued  to  be  the  principal  aim  of 
the  Irish  Nationalist  Party,  however  hopeless  their 
efforts  might  seem.  As  the  years  went  on  John 
Redmond  was  more  conservative,  and  more  willing 
to  consider  the  problem  from  the  point  of  view  of 
Great  Britain  as  well  as  of  Ireland.  And  so  time 
passed.  The  Victorian  era  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
twentieth  century  began  with  awful  and  mighty  prob- 
lems slowly  emerging  from  the  future. 

Shortly  after  Gladstone's  retirement  the  Conserva- 
tives had  come  into  power,  and  they  held  it  for  a 
decade;  but  in  1905  a  Liberal  cabinet  was  formed, 
and  in  the  elections  of  the  year  following  they  secured 
an  overwhelming  majority.  A  period  of  legislative 
reform  and  revolution  began  then.  All  sorts  of  lib- 
eral and  radical  measures  were  proposed  and  under- 
taken. But  the  House  of  Lords  still  remained  a 
stronghold  of  conservative  opposition,  and  much  of 
the  Liberal  program  was  there  defeated.  In  1909 
Mr.  Asquith  became  prime  minister,  and  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  chancellor  of  the  exchequer.  They  desired  to 
bring  about  certain  social  and  industrial  legislation, 
in  accordance  with  the  best  liberal  and  progressive 


256    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

thought  of  the  time,  which  would  require  consider- 
able money.  This  revenue  they  proposed  to  obtain 
in  part  from  new  taxes  upon  the  possessions  of  the 
wealthy,  which  the  conservative  owners  of  wealth  re- 
garded as  unlawful  and  as  striking  at  the  security  of 
property.  Accordingly  when  the  measure  had  passed 
the  Commons,  it  was  rejected  by  the  Lords.  There 
followed  a  memorable  struggle  over  the  veto  power 
of  the  upper  House.  Now  at  last  was  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  Irish  Nationalist  Party;  for  Liberal 
strength  was  diminished,  and  the  Liberal  leaders  had 
need  of  all  the  allies  they  could  obtain.  With  the 
support  of  the  Irish  members  they  could  be  certain, 
perhaps,  of  controlling  the  Commons.  For  this  sup- 
port, as  is  the  way  of  politics,  they  must  pay  and 
were  willing  to  pay.  Moreover,  Home  Rule  for  Ire- 
land had  long  been  one  of  their  principles ;  it  now  be- 
came again  one  of  their  projects  of  reform.  If  the 
Irish  members  would  support  them  in  the  great  trial 
to  come,  after  the  victory  Ireland's  cause  would  be 
taken  up.  Redmond  and  his  followers  were  more  will- 
ing to  do  this,  since  it  was  evident  that  if  they  assisted 
in  taking  from  the  House  of  Lords  the  veto  which 
had  once  defeated  Home  Rule,  and  which  would  most 
probably  be  employed  again  for  that  purpose,  they 
would  have  the  better  chance  of  getting  Home  Rule 
when  their  Liberal  allies  undertook  to  support  it.  So 
Home  Rule  became  an  issue  again. 

The  Liberals,  supported  by  Labor  and  the  Irish 
Nationalists,  maintained  their  majority  after  the  elec- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    257 

tions  of  1910  and  1911,  and  were  presently  able  to 
force  through  both  Houses  the  well-known  Parlia- 
ment Bill  of  1911,  by  the  terms  of  which  a  measure 
passed  by  the  Commons  after  a  while  becomes  a  law 
despite  any  veto  of  the  Lords.  Thus  was  one  of  the 
important  constitutional  changes  in  the  history  of 
England  brought  to  pass.  The  way  was  now  open 
for  further  alterations,  and  Home  Rule  was  taken 
up  a  third  time. 

The  struggle  which  followed  will  be  remembered 
by  most  people  who  had  interest  in  it.  There  was 
again  powerful  opposition  in  England.  But  this 
time  it  was  evident  that  the  measure  could  be  carried. 
The  Irish  members  had  supported  the  Asquith  minis- 
try in  the  bitter  conflict  of  the  two  years  preceding, 
and  now  the  Liberals  would  pay  their  debt.  The 
coalition  had  an  undoubted  majority  in  the  Commons. 
The  opposition  of  the  Lords  would  not  avail  as  it  had 
in  Gladstone's  time,  for  according  to  the  Parliament 
Act,  if  any  measure  were  passed  in  three  successive 
sessions  by  the  Commons  and  in  the  course  of  two 
years,  then  it  would  become  a  law  despite  the  veto  of 
the  Peers.  Never  had  Home  Rule  seemed  so  cer- 
tain. 

It  was  because  of  the  very  imminency  of  Nation- 
alist and  Liberal  success  that  another  factor  now  be- 
came far  more  important  than  ever  it  had  been  before. 
The  Protestants  of  north  Ireland  in  Ulster  had  taken 
an  important  part  in  the  first  Home  Rule  struggle. 
Now  all  their  fears  were  awakened  as  they  had  not 


258    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

been  before,  and  their  opposition  was  roused  to  tre- 
mendous proportions,  and  then  taken  up  by  the 
Unionists  in  Great  Britain.  In  Ulster  passion  was 
kindled  into  a  flame.  Great  demonstrations  were 
made.  The  leader  was  Sir  Edward  Carson,  who  has 
been  denounced  as  a  crafty  politician,  as  insincere,  and 
as  serving  his  own  interests  in  the  dissensions  of  his 
country,  but  who  was  undeniably  a  man  of  great  force 
and  strength  of  character,  and  who  speedily  caught 
the  imagination  of  the  stern  Protestants  of  the  north. 
In  1912  the  third  Home  Rule  Bill  was  introduced 
into  the  House  of  Commons.  As  in  the  preceding 
Bills  there  was  to  be  an  Irish  parliament,  consisting 
of  two  Houses,  which  should  control  the  legislation 
and  administration  of  affairs  which  were  purely  Irish. 
It  resembled  the  second  Home  Rule  Bill  in  its  later 
stages,  in  that  Ireland  was  to  be  represented  in  the 
Imperial  parliament,  the  representation  now  being 
fixed  at  forty-two  members.  It  was  specially  stated 
that  notwithstanding  the  establishment  of  an  Irish 
parliament,  the  supreme  power  and  authority  of  the 
parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  should  remain  un- 
diminished  over  all  matters  and  persons  in  Ireland. 
The  assembly  in  Dublin  might  make  laws  for  the 
peace,  order,  and  good  government  of  Ireland,  but 
certain  things  were  reserved  exclusively  for  the  Im- 
perial parliament,  such  as  the  crown,  war,  peace,  the 
army,  the  navy,  and  important  financial  matters,  such 
as  land  purchase,  old  age  pensions,  and  customs,  while 
the  Irish  parliament  was  expressly  forbidden  to  make 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    259 

any  law  for  endowing  a  particular  religion,  or  giving 
preference  because  of  religious  training  or  belief. 
Executive  power  would  remain  in  the  hands  of  the 
sovereign  or  his  lord  lieutenant.  The  lord  lieutenant, 
representing  the  king,  was  to  be  advised  by  an  "Exec- 
utive Committee"  as,  in  theory,  the  king  was  by  the 
cabinet,  this  Committee  to  be  composed  of  the  heads 
of  the  Irish  departments,  formed  in  the  manner  of 
the  British  cabinet,  and  dependent  upon  support  of  a 
majority  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons.  The  fi- 
nancial arrangement  was  difficult  to  make,  as  usual, 
but  it  provided  that  expenses  were  to  be  borne  partly 
by  the  Irish  and  partly  by  the  Imperial  exchequer. 
Mr.  Redmond  declared  in  the  Commons,  on  behalf  of 
the  Irish  Party  and  its  supporters,  "that  we  accept 
this  Bill  in  absolute  good  faith  as  a  settlement  of  the 
interminable  quarrel  between  the  two  countries."  3 
It  was  easily  carried  through  the  Commons,  passing 
second  and  third  readings  by  huge  majorities,  but 
when  taken  up  to  the  Lords  in  January,  1913,  a  second 
reading  was  refused  by  a  majority  very  much  greater. 
Brought  to  bay,  nevertheless,  the  Unionists  of  Ul- 
ster declared  that  as  loyal  subjects  of  the  Empire,  and 
faithful  adherents  to  the  Act  of  Union,  they  relied 
upon  the  Union  for  protection  against  their  enemies, 
who  had  usually  been  cold  and  often  hostile  to  the 
British  government,  and  to  whom  now  the  Home  Rule 
Bill  proposed  to  hand  them  over.  Was  it  the  inten- 
tion of  the  majority  of  the  people  of  England  and 

?  Quoted  in  The  A  B  C  Home  Rule  Handbook,  p.  106. 


260    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Scotland  thus  to  cast  them  aside?  Had  the  British 
people  given  to  the  present  ministry  any  mandate  for 
such  a  thing?  It  was  not  possible  to  believe  that  this 
was  so,  but  if  it  were,  one  could  not  believe  that  the 
electorate  understood  what  was  about  to  be  done. 
Certainly  there  was  not  justice  in  casting  them  out. 
Ireland  was  best  off  in  its  present  union  with  Great 
Britain,  but  if  Celtic  Ireland  did  not  believe  that  was 
so,  and  desired  the  severing  of  the  tie,  such  was  not 
the  case  with  them.  The  rest  of  Ireland  might  go, 
but  not  they.  If  the  Home  Rule  Bill  became  law, 
they  would  refuse  to  accept  it.  Whatever  else  was 
done,  they  were  going  to  maintain  their  connection 
with  their  fellows  in  race  and  religion  across  the  Irish 
Sea. 

The  Protestants  of  Ulster  were  not  making  mere 
threats.  A  strong  Unionist  organization  had  been 
built  up.  In  August,  1912,  great  numbers  of  people 
pledged  themselves  in  a  Covenant,  like  their  ances- 
tors had  done  once  in  a  dark  crisis  of  their  nation  and 
faith,  to  resist  Home  Rule  and  refuse  to  accept  it: 

We,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  men  of  Ulster,  loyal 
subjects  of  His  Gracious  Majesty  King  George  V,  humbly 
relying  on  the  God  whom  our  fathers  in  days  of  stress  and 
trial  confidently  trusted, 

Do  hereby  pledge  ourselves  in  solemn  Covenant  throughout 
this  our  time  of  threatened  calamity  to  stand  by  one  an- 
other in  defending  for  ourselves  and  our  children  our  cher- 
ished position  of  equal  citizenship  in  the-  United  Kingdom, 
and  in  using  all  means  which  may  be  found  necessary  to  'de- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    261 

feat  the  present  conspiracy  to  set  up  a  Home  Rule  Parlia- 
ment in  Ireland. 

Great  meetings  were  held  in  the  midst  of  stern  re- 
ligious fervor;  and  by  the  end  of  the  year  100,000 
Ulster  Volunteers  had  enrolled  themselves  in  a  mili- 
tary body,  and  were  drilling  and  practicing  with  arms, 
and  ready  to  resist  the  enemy,  as  once  the  men  of  Lon- 
donderry and  Enniskillen  had  resisted  King  James. 
Memories  of  the  age  of  Cromwell  and  of  William 
were  recalled.  Often  Kipling's  words  were  repeated : 

The  dark  eleventh  hour 

Draws  on  and  sees  us  sold 
To  every  evil  power 

We  fought  against  of  old. 

North  Ireland  was  stirred  as  it  had  not  been  for  a 
hundred  years.  All  through  July  and  August  Sir 
Edward  Carson  had  gone  through  Ulster  declaring 
that  if  Home  Rule  were  granted,  then  Ulster  would 
set  up  a  government  of  its  own,  and  refuse  to  pay  the 
taxes  of  the  parliament  in  Dublin.  To  the  Nation- 
alists all  this  seemed  blind  bigotry,  mistaken  fanati- 
cism and  opposition,  and  to  the  Liberals  it  seemed 
partly  the  result  of  shrewd  manipulation  by  their  po- 
litical opponents  of  old  prejudice  and  hatred,  done 
so  as  to  hinder  Home  Rule  when  all  other  devices  had 
failed;  but  whatever  was  thought  about  it,  there  was 
little  doubt  concerning  the  determination  of  the  ma- 
jority in  Ulster. 


262    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

In  England  the  Opposition  called  for  a  referen- 
dum, a  general  election  on  the  issue  of  Home  Rule, 
and  declared  that  otherwise  civil  war  was  inevitable. 
In  the  1913  session  the  Home  Rule  Bill  again  passed 
the  Commons  and  was  again  rejected  by  the  Lords. 
If  it  passed  the  Commons  in  the  next  session  it  would 
become  a  law.  Not  only  was  Ulster  under  arms  and 
drilling  now,  but  armed  forces  were  being  gathered  by 
the  Nationalists  also.  The  government  forbade  the 
importation  of  arms,  but  little  was  accomplished 
thereby.  In  England  there  was  much  sympathy  for 
Ulster,  and  a  great  many  people  felt  that  the  Home 
Rule  question  was  complicated  with  another  difficult 
problem  which  had  not  been  sufficiently  thought  of  be- 
fore. Mr.  Winston  Churchill  suggested,  what  Joseph 
Chamberlain  had  suggested  in  1886,  that  the  Irish 
question  might  be  solved  by  some  scheme  of  federa- 
tion, the  dividing  of  Ireland,  so  as  to  leave  Ulster  to 
itself,  and  the  dividing  of  the  remainder  of  the  British 
Isles  into  such  parts  as  seemed  proper.  The  cabinet, 
however,  was  pledged  to  the  Nationalists  to  carry  the 
Home  Rule  Bill,  and  the  idea  of  federalism  was  for 
the  future  rather  than  the  present.  But  because  of 
much  pressure  and  exhortation  to  reconsider,  Mr.  As- 
quith  in  March,  1914,  proposed  to  parliament  a  scheme 
whereby  the  Unionist  counties  of  Ulster  might,  if  they 
desired,  be  excluded  from  the  operation  of  Home  Rule 
for  the  space  of  six  years  after  the  passing  of  the  bill. 
Redmond  now,  with  the  wisdom  of  a  statesman  de- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE     263 

clared  earnestly  that  the  Irish  Nationalists  would  do 
all  they  could  to  satisfy  Ulster.  In  May  the  bill 
passed  the  Commons  for  the  third  time,  and  now  after 
a  brief  interval  it  would  be  law.  At  last,  except  for 
Ulster,  the  Nationalist  triumph  was  complete. 

But  actually  the  situation  became  more  threaten- 
ing every  moment.  It  was  evident  that  Ulster  would 
oppose  the  law  with  armed  resistance,  and  it  was  also 
very  evident  that  strong  sentiment  in  England  would 
be  against  using  the  armed  forces  of  the  Empire  to 
coerce  the  men  of  Ulster  into  submission.  "Help  me 
keep  the  flag!"  was  the  legend  under  a  picture  of  Ul- 
ster sore  beset  with  foes;  and  a  gentler  appeal  con- 
tained the  plaintive  words  of  one  who  long  ago  had 
said:  "Intreat  me  not  to  leave  thee."  Nationalist 
Ireland,  flushed  with  the  victory  at  last  come  to  its 
cause,  was  ill-disposed  to  brook  failure  through  Ulster 
at  this  moment.  The  Nationalists  were  by  no  means 
willing  that  Home  Rule  be  given  to  them  with  the 
exclusion  of  Ulster,  and  while  it  was  doubtful  whether 
they  could  unaided  coerce  the  inhabitants  of  the  north, 
it  was  not  certain  that  they  would  not  try,  since  they 
readily  asserted  that  there  could  not  be  successful 
Home  Rule  if  one  of  the  most  prosperous  parts  of  the 
island  were  allowed  to  remain  outside  of  it.  Accord- 
ingly, as  spring  went  on  into  summer,  there  seemed  the 
dread  prospect  of  civil  war  in  the  island.  Statesmen 
knew,  perhaps,  then,  what  all  know  now,  that  affairs 
in  Europe  were  such  that  the  British  Empire  had  need 


264    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  complete  loyalty  and  union  to  pass  safely  through 
the  troubles  which  might  arise;  and  it  is  certain  that 
after  the  assassination  of  the  Archduke  at  Sarajevo 
the  German  government  counted  not  a  little  upon  the 
weakness  of  Great  Britain  because  of  the  ominous  sit- 
uation in  Ireland.  But  all  attempts  at  an  under- 
standing were  in  vain.  Ulster  would  make  no  com- 
promise; 200,000  people  had  taken  the  Covenant; 
Nationalist  forces  were  drilling  throughout  the  island 
to  pit  themselves  against  the  30,000  Ulster  Volun- 
teers well  equipped  with  arms  who  went  grimly  on 
with  their  preparations. 

A  last  effort  was  made  for  a  settlement.  The 
leaders  of  both  parties  were  summoned  to  meet  in  con- 
ference at  the  king's  residence,  Buckingham  Palace, 
in  the  hope  that  some  agreement  might  be  reached. 
It  was  in  a  solemn  time  that  this  meeting  was  called. 
The  cloud  risen  on  the  horizon  of  Europe,  for  a  while 
less  than  a  man's  hand,  now  loomed  vast  and  terrific. 
Must  there  be  an  Irish  civil  war  at  such  a  moment? 
It  was  all-important  in  this  dread  hour  that  every 
quarrel  should  cease.  Yet  the  conference  failed  alto- 
gether: the  two  sides  could  reach  no  agreement  and 
would  not  make  any  concession.  Then  the  mighty 
cataclysm,  which  had  so  often  before  been  foretold  to 
Europe,  and  so  often  avoided,  until  the  small  and  un- 
seeing believed  that  never  it  would  come,  suddenly 
descended  like  a  whirlwind.  And  then  at  last  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  Kingdom,  as  is  their  wont,  hushed 
all  domestic  dissensions,  and  turned  to  the  enemy 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  HOME  RULE    265 

united.  At  the  beginning  of  August  the  Home  Rule 
question  and  that  other  which  had  been  so  perplexing, 
the  feminist  suffragette  movement,  were  dropped  out 
of  sight  for  a  while,  and  hid  by  the  struggle  of  nations. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   ARGUMENTS   ABOUT    HOME   RULE 

The  British  Empire  has  been  built  up  on  Home  Rule.  You 
are  now  asked  to  complete  the  edifice  and  to  give  to  Ireland 
the  blessing  of  Self-Government  which  has  made  the  whole 
Empire  contented,  prosperous  and  loyal. 

Home  Rule  ?'s  Answered  (Liberal  Publication 
Department,  1913),  p.  62. 

Are  we  now,  after  seven  centuries  of  battling  against  Eng- 
land, to  become  loyal  and  submissive  to  her  rule  .  .  .  be- 
cause we  have  been  thrown  a  crust  from  the  Imperial  table? 
.  .  .  Ireland  is  no  colony  of  yesterday  like  Canada  or  Aus- 
tralia, but  an  ancient  nation,  and  no  crippled  measure  of 
Home  Rule  will  satisfy  its  national  aspirations. 

Tipperary  Star,  May  25,  1912. 

IN  this  chapter  I  purpose  to  sum  up  the  arguments 
used  in  the  Home  Rule  struggle,  which  in  one 
form  or  another  have  appeared  many  different  times, 
though  here  they  are  stated  as  given  by  one  side  or  the 
other  in  the  years  just  prior  to  the  war.  In  expound- 
ing them  it  is  necessary  to  deal  with  many  matters 
highly  controversial,  with  statements  exaggerated, 
spoken  in  bitterness  and  passion,  many  of  them  greatly 
offensive  to  one  side  or  the  other,  often  seeming  cruel 
and  untrue.  In  this  chapter  I  hold  no  brief.  The 

266 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE    267 

arguments  may  be  found  by  anyone  who  cares  to 
search  in  the  newspapers  and  parliamentary  debates, 
and  especially  in  the  vast  number  of  fugitive  pam- 
phlets and  leaflets  published  so  profusely  in  the  Brit- 
ish Isles  during  the  controversy  just  before  the  war. 
I  neither  defend  nor  vouch  for  the  truth.  It  is  my 
purpose  to  expound  the  things  which  were  said,  which 
the  contestants  desired  men  to  believe.  Many  of  the 
sayings  are  true,  and  the  reader  himself  may  judge; 
but  often  they  are  very  doubtful,  and  are  merely  what 
men  would  have  liked  to  maintain.  Such  controver- 
sial literature  is  familiar  to  students.  Similar  books 
and  pamphlets  and  leaflets  appeared  in  profusion  in 
England  during  the  tariff  controversy  and  especially 
in  the  struggle  for  the  franchise  for  women ;  and  if  this 
be  more  an  English  than  an  American  custom,  yet  we 
have  often  seen  the  like  in  American  political  cam- 
paigns. 

Those  who  favored  Home  Rule  wished  men  and 
women  to  know  the  sins  committed  by  England  in 
centuries  past,  and  hearken  to  appeals  for  amendment. 
They  told  again  and  again  of  old  misery  and  wrong, 
of  the  long  years  passed  without  reform,  of  what 
Irishmen  had  striven  for,  and  what  Englishmen  in  the 
latest  age  had  done  in  atonement.  Declaring  what 
was  still  to  be  done,  they  appealed  to  all  that  was 
wisest,  most  generous,  and  most  humane  in  their  age. 
They  asked  for  Home  Rule  because  they  believed  it 
was  just,  and  best  for  Ireland  and  England  and  the 
world. 


268          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

They  said  that  Home  Rule  for  Ireland  was  now  op- 
posed by  the  Tories,  who  had  always  hindered  con- 
structive measures  in  England,  from  the  reform  of  the 
electoral  laws  to  the  endeavors  of  Mr.  Lloyd  George. 
Particularly  was  this  true  of  the  Lords:  how  often 
had  they  not  rejected  or  cut  down  reforms  both  for 
Britain  and  Ireland!  Here  was  the  same  old  stupid 
game  so  often  played  by  aristocracy  and  rigid  con- 
servatives. Actually  the  great  British  democracy 
ought  to  favor  the  Irish  Nationalist  movement :  often 
the  Nationalists  had  helped  to  put  through  the  British 
parliament  legislation  desired  by  the  British  people: 
aristocracy  had  no  part  in  their  work.  The  Irish  had 
been  pioneers  in  democratic  representation,  in  paying 
their  members  in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  land  re- 
form, in  the  housing  of  working  classes.  To  assist 
Home  Rule  was  to  make  alliance  with  one  of  the 
greatest  democratic  forces  in  the  British  Isles. 

It  was  true  that  much  had  been  done  of  late,  and 
done  by  the  Conservative  Party,  to  better  the  condition 
of  the  Irish  and  give  them  a  better  government,  but 
much  more  remained.  Their  government  was  such  as 
a  free  people  never  would  have.  It  was  not  really 
the  British  system  of  a  cabinet  responsible  to  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people.  Irishmen  had  no  legislature 
of  their  own.  Their  executive  was  not  responsible  to 
them;  but  he  controlled  the  armed  forces,  artd  ap- 
pointed the  judges  and  officers  of  the  police.  The 
laws  for  Ireland  were  made  far  away,  in  an  assembly 
in  which  they  had  part,  to  be  sure,  but  which  they 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE    269 

could  not  control.  Often  this  government  was  well 
administered,  but  it  was  not  self-government,  not  a 
government  by  the  people.  Usually  this  system  was 
not  only  irritating  to  the  Irish,  but  also  extravagant 
and  deficient.  There  was  much  overlapping  and 
waste,  and  there  was  also  discrimination  against  the 
Celtic  Irish  in  making  appointments  to  government 
positions.  The  cost  of  administration  was  more  than 
twice  as  much  for  each  inhabitant  in  Ireland  as  for 
people  in  England  and  Wales. 

It  was  a  consequence  of  the  present  system  that 
often  Ireland  could  get  no  hearing  for  that  which  she 
needed.  In  the  House  of  Commons  her  members 
made  up  less  than  a  sixth  of  the  total  number.  Not 
only  could  measures  desired  by  most  of  the  Irish  fail 
because  opposed  by  English,  Scottish,  or  Welsh  mem- 
bers, who  could  yet  force  upon  Ireland  measures  re- 
pugnant, but  it  was  very  difficult  for  the  Imperial  par- 
liament, so  great  was  the  pressure  of  business,  to  at- 
tend to  Irish  matters  at  all.  There  were  many  things, 
entirely  non-controversial  and  in  themselves  not  ob- 
jectionable, of  much  local  importance  in  Ireland, 
about  which  nothing  could  be  done  until  the  parlia- 
ment at  Westminster  acted,  and  such  legislation  was 
frequently  difficult  to  obtain  and  exceedingly  expen- 
sive. Men  said  that  a  bill  for  the  amalgamation  of 
three  Irish  railways  remained  before  parliament  three 
sessions,  and  cost  nearly  £100,000.  With  an  Irish 
parliament  at  Dublin,  the  thing  might  have  been  set- 
tled for  a  very  small  part  of  that  cost.  Under  Home 


270          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Rule  such  a  parliament  could  give  proper  attention  to 
many  matters  now  neglected,  like  Irish  education, 
housing,  poor-law  administration,  railways,  harbors, 
and  canals.  An  Irish  parliament  would  reflect  the 
ideas  and  the  wishes  of  the  Irish  people,  having  better 
knowledge  of  their  peculiar  problems,  and  sufficient 
time  to  deal  with  them  rightly.  And  above  all,  for  the 
first  time  in  a  century  Ireland  would  have  a  govern- 
ment satisfactory  to  the  great  majority  of  her  people. 

These  arguments  and  others  made  by  advocates  of 
Home  Rule  were  given,  of  course,  to  win  votes  and 
support,  but  often  they  were  told  simply  and  fairly, 
by  men  who  believed  they  were  true.  The  Unionists 
also  were  strong  in  their  faith,  some  with  passionate 
sincerity  and  devotion,  though  frequently  it  seemed 
that  they,  like  some  anti-suffrage  workers  in  England, 
were  particularly  bent  upon  making  what  they  said 
appear  plausible  and  attractive. 

They  meant  no  injustice.  It  is  well  to  recognize 
that  in  Great  Britain  by  1912  there  were  probably 
few,  only  such  as  were  steeped  in  the  strait  old  Tory- 
ism of  the  past,  who  wished  Ireland  to  be  held  down 
or  oppressed.  With  most  people  there  was  disposi- 
tion to  confess  wrongs  and  errors  in  the  past,  ascrib- 
ing them  to  an  age  fully  gone,  and  desire  now  that 
fullest  amends  should  be  made,  that  Irishmen  should 
be  assisted  to  build  up  the  prosperity  of  their  country, 
and  be  as  free  as  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  British 
Isles,  and  to  hope  that  in  time  the  old  bitter  memories 
might  go,  and  Ireland  become  a  willing  member  and 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     271 

a  loyal  partner  in  the  empire  in  which  she  was  in- 
cluded. But  as  for  Home  Rule,  and  the  things  neces- 
sarily involved  or  likely  to  follow,  these  Unionists 
said  that  there  were  certain  factors  in  Ireland,  refer- 
ring especially  to  Ulster,  and  also  certain  great  facts 
of  geography  and  international  relations  which  states- 
men must  consider  and  could  not  neglect. 

On  this  particular  occasion  they  disliked  the  way 
the  measure  was  brought  forward  and  also  some  of  the 
principles  it  contained.  The  crisis  had  come,  they 
said,  largely  because  of  selfish  considerations  of  party. 
The  Liberals  had  attained  such  power  because  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  wanted  certain  social  reforms. 
The  tide  had  run  very  far,  until  finally  came  the  act 
taking  power  from  the  House  of  Lords,  leaving  Mr. 
Asquith  nearly  supreme.  But  there  had  been  a  re- 
action, and  his  majority  in  Great  Britain  had  dwin- 
dled, until  only  the  support  of  Irish  members  made  his 
position  secure.  His  ministry  now  rested  upon  a 
coalition,  of  which  the  lesser,  but  indispensable,  part 
was  the  Nationalist  members  of  Ireland,  so  that  actu- 
ally their  leader,  Mr.  Redmond,  was  the  ultimate  dic- 
tator in  the  British  Isles.  Really  the  situation  was 
one  which  British  voters  could  see  only  with  appre- 
hension: the  Nationalist  Party  was  financed  by  sup- 
porters in  America  and  led  by  a  group  of  Irish  politi- 
cians who  dominated  Redmond;  in  turn  he  was  the 
master  of  Mr.  Asquith;  the  latter,  whatever  his  real 
wishes,  was  compelled  to  support  Home  Rule. 

This  Home  Rule  Bill  had  not  been  properly  debated 


272          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

or  considered;  it  was  being  forced  through  the  Com- 
mons. Unionists  declared  that  there  was  "no  man- 
date for  Home  Rule."  It  was  not  certain  that  most 
of  the  British  people  were  willing  to  grant  it.  A 
great  many  of  the  Liberal  candidates  had  never  dis- 
cussed the  issue  before  election ;  Mr.  Asquith  had  not 
promised  to  bring  it  forward  until  the  outcome  of  the 
election  had  shown  him  to  be  in  Mr.  Redmond's  power. 
Now  the  Liberal  government  was  trying  to  get  the 
bill  through  without  seeking  the  judgment  of  the 
people.  There  ought  to  be  a  general  election  on  this 
question.  In  1913,  when  Mr.  Asquith  was  speaking 
about  a  bill  to  give  votes  to  women,  he  said  that  par- 
liament ought  to  hesitate  to  take  a  step  so  unprece- 
dented without  "a  full  and  assured  conviction  that  it 
has  behind  it  in  taking  that  step  the  deliberate  and 
considered  sanction  of  the  community" ; 1  and  he  had 
said  that  such  considerations  applied  to  any  constitu- 
tional change.  Where  was  any  deliberate  and  con- 
sidered sanction  for  Home  Rule? 

Many  grave  objections  were  made  to  parts  of  the 
law  proposed,  particularly  with  respect  to  parliamen- 
tary representation,  delegated  powers,  the  post,  the 
judiciary,  the  constabulary,  things  about  which  in  all 
constitutional  change  there  can  be  much  question.  It 
was  said  especially  that  considerations  of  finance  made 
the  present  scheme  objectionable  or  doomed  it  to 
failure.  Some  writers  declared  that  if  Home  Rule 
were  established,  Britain  must  contribute  to  Ireland 

i  Speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  May  6,  1913. 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     273 

every  year  £6,500,000,  and  most  critics  agreed  that 
the  annual  contribution  for  expenditures  strictly  Irish 
would  certainly  be  £2,000,000.  But  with  great  in- 
sistence it  was  answered  that  Home  Rule  would  not 
be  expensive.  It  would  cost  the  British  workingman 
to  be  sure,  as  was  so  often  proclaimed,  but  it  would 
be  "something  between  a  farthing  a  month  and  a 
farthing  a  year."  For  three  years  the  British  ex- 
chequer would  contribute  to  Ireland  £500,000,  after 
which  the  sum  would  be  gradually  diminished.  They 
said  it  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  during 
the  nineteenth  century  the  Imperial  exchequer  had 
received  in  taxes  from  Ireland  £300,000,000  which 
were  not  spent  in  the  island:  but  these  figures  repeat- 
edly given  were  as  often  disputed  by  the  other  side, 
and  the  best  authorities  were  disposed  to  regard  the 
calculation  as  exceedingly  doubtful.  As  it  was  now, 
the  maintenance  of  the  Irish  police  and  excessive  ad- 
ministrative expense  made  it  necessary  for  Britain 
to  give  increasing  amounts  of  money  to  Ireland  every 
year.  Under  Home  Rule  there  would  be  greater  fru- 
gality, and  the  deficit  might  diminish  and  disappear, 
so  that  Ireland  would  actually  be  able  to  contribute 
to  the  cost  of  Imperial  administration.  Unionist  ad- 
vocates scoffed  at  this,  saying  that  with  Home  Rule 
there  was  every  reason  to  expect  a  riot  of  graft  and 
expenses. 

Unionists  argued  that  the  Irish  were  not  suffering 
now  from  the  evils  which  had  once  oppressed  them. 
Already  Ireland  governed  herself.  She  had  now 


274 

precisely  the  same  power  to  manage  her  own  affairs 
that  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales  enjoyed.  Irish 
urban  and  rural  district  councils,  county  councils,  and 
boards  of  guardians  were  elected  by  the  people ;  Irish 
elementary  and  technical  education,  fisheries,  agricul- 
ture, congested  districts,  and  old  age  pensions  were 
administered  by  Irish  committees.  As  to  economic 
betterment,  restoration  of  well-being  for  the  mass  of 
the  people  had  been  largely  accomplished  already 
through  the  aid  of  the  British  government,  which  had 
appropriated  huge  sums  of  money  for  the  purchase 
of  land  by  the  Irish  peasants,  to  whom  money  was 
loaned  for  long  periods  at  low  rate  of  interest.  A 
leaflet  declared  that  now  the  Irish  farmer  could  bor- 
row money  from  the  state  on  easy  terms,  and  buy  his 
farm  paying  off  the  price  in  installments  lower  than 
his  rent  had  been;  where  he  continued  to  rent,  the 
amount  was  fixed  by  the  state  and  could  not  be  raised 
by  the  landlord;  that  the  tenant  now  could  not  be 
turned  out  of  his  farm  so  long  as  the  rent  was  regu- 
larly paid ;  that  the  state  gave  him  help  to  improve  his 
crops  and  the  breed  of  his  stock ;  that  he  could  obtain  a 
holding  large  enough  for  his  family;  that  the  state 
gave  assistance  with  stock  and  new  buildings,  and  even 
a  cottage  at  very  low  rent.  It  was  not  the  Irish,  said 
this  writer,  who  needed  further  assistance;  let  the 
same  kind  of  help  be  given  to  the  English  people. 
And  it  was  further  said  that  the  British  government 
had  already  expended  for  land  purchase  £78,000,000, 
and  would  probably  have  to  expend  £100,000,000 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     275 

more.  Under  Home  Rule  was  it  certain  that  a  par- 
liament elected  by  debtor  peasants  could  be  depended 
on  to  pay  back  the  money  advanced? 

Grave  objections  were  alleged  with  respect  to  the 
interests  of  the  Irish  people  themselves.  It  was 
doubtful  whether  they  needed  more  self-government, 
and  very  doubtful  whether  most  of  them  really  desired 
it.  There  was  no  question  that  the  majority  of  large 
traders  and  merchants,  the  business  and  professional 
classes,  the  manufacturers  and  bankers  opposed  it. 
Home  Rule,  largely  supported  by  money  from  the 
United  States,  was  most  desired  by  the  politicians; 
they  were  the  ones  who  insistently  urged  it,  since  they 
ho£ed  to  rule  Ireland  after  the  measure  was  passed. 
One  writer  asserted  that  except  for  agitators  there 
would  be  no  unrest  and  no  demand  for  Home  Rule. 
From  the  condition  of  some  places  now  governed  by 
Irishmen  it  was  doubtful  whether  the  mass  of  the 
people  were  able  properly  to  manage  their  public 
affairs.  The  civil  government  of  Dublin  was  a 
mockery,  even  to  its  own  people.  If  it  was  true  that 
the  Irish  people  were  thus  incapable,  then  Irish  ad- 
ministration, when  no  longer  kept  in  control  from 
England,  would  be  taken  over  by  the  politicians  who 
ruled  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  and  other  or- 
ganizations like  it. 

To  all  this  the  answer  was  that  most  of  the  Irish 
people  had  shown  that  they  did  earnestly  desire  Home 
Rule.  Out  of  101  constituencies  in  which  members 
were  elected  by  popular  franchise,  80  had  invariably 


276    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

sent  Home  Rule  representatives  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, while  Unionists  had  been  regularly  elected  in 
10.  Ever  since  1885,  when  a  wide  electorate  first 
used  the  franchise  in  Ireland,  four-fifths  of  the  repre- 
sentation had  been  pledged  to  Home  Rule,  and  there 
were  not  many  constituencies  in  which  there  had  been 
any  wavering  since  that  time.  In  1913  a  colored 
poster  was  circulated:  "Does  Ireland  want  Home 
Rule?"  It  was  a  map  showing  that  all  of  Connaught 
and  all  of  Munster  returned  members  pledged  to  the 
demand,  that  in  Leinster  the  only  ones  opposed  to  it 
represented  the  University  of  Dublin,  and  that  even 
for  Ulster,  Nationalist  members  represented  half  of 
the  province.  Altogether  Ireland  returned  only  18 
Unionist  members. 

As  to  Irish  incapacity  for  self-government,  with 
the  danger  of  them  falling  under  the  domination  of 
political  leaders  who  would  use  them  as  they  pleased, 
so  that  things  would  be  worse  than  before,  it  was  well 
to  recall  that  Ireland's  last  opportunity  to  govern 
herself,  in  part  at  least,  through  her  own  representa- 
tives, was  the  period  of  Grattan's  parliament:  not  a 
few  historians  had  borne  witness  to  the  prosperity  and 
progress  of  that  time.  But  there  was  a  more  recent 
illustration  that  was  better.  In  1885  Lord  Salisbury 
declared  that  to  give  the  Irish  control  of  their  local 
government  would  be  more  dangerous  than  giving 
Home  Rule.  But  he  himself  was  at  the  head  of  a 
ministry  which  did  grant  it  in  the  Irish  County  Coun- 
cils Act  of  1898.  It  was  generally  agreed  that  local 


government  had  been  well  administered  in  Ireland 
since  that  time.  But  in  any  event  there  was  no  just 
reason  for  thinking  that  Irishmen  were  politically 
deficient. 

It  was  constantly  urged  as  an  objection  that  under 
the  politicians  and  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  organiza- 
tions conditions  would  be  worse  than  under  a  govern- 
ment supervised  by  British  authority.  The  power 
behind  the  Nationalist  Party  was  the  Ancient  Order 
of  Hibernians  or  "Molly  Maguires,"  who  controlled 
the  parts  of  the  United  Irish  League,  who  were  feared 
and  detested  by  Protestants  and  Unionists,  and  also 
by  many  respectable  Catholics  in  Ireland.  Cardinal 
Logue  once  called  them  "a  cruel  tyranny,  and  an 
organized  system  of  blackguardism";  while  an  Irish 
newspaper  declared  that  they  were  steeped  in  out- 
rage and  crime,  and  would,  if  they  had  power,  "make 
this  country  a  hell."  2  One  of  the  Unionist  leaflets  as- 
serted that  Home  Rule  really  meant  the  rule  of  the 
Ancient  Order. 

The  methods  employed  to  extend  and  uphold  the 
greatness  of  these  bodies  would  be  the  using  of  un- 
seen power,  coercion  by  boycott,  intimidation,  and 
destruction  of  property.  Everyone  lamented  the  old 
oppression  and  misrule  in  the  island,  but  it  was  neces- 
sary to  admit  that  they  had  left  an  evil  heritage  of 
disorder  and  crime.  Doubtless.it  was  true  that  crime 
was  diminishing,  but  still  there  were  numerous  in- 

2  Leaflet:  The  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  (Ulster  Unionist  Coun- 
cil) ;  Cork  Fret  Press,  September  13,  1910, 


278          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

stances  of  boycotting,  of  farms  ravaged,  of  cattle 
injured,  of  machinery  and  crops  destroyed.  In  the 
Unionist  campaign  wide  circulation  was  given  to  The 
Boycotting  of  Richard  Kingston — which  the  Liberals 
explained  in  satisfactory  manner — and  to  the  story 
of  the  prolonged  defiance  of  law  in  the  case  of 
"Walsh's  Fort."  Tales  were  told  of  brutal  murder, 
of  cruel  revenge,  of  moonlighting,  hay  burning,  arson. 
It  was  said  also  that  Irish  conditions  were  such,  and 
such  was  the  character  of  magistrates  in  Ireland,  that 
either  criminals  were  not  prosecuted,  or  the  trials  re- 
sulted in  acquittal  on  the  intervention  of  the  secret 
societies.  Could  it  be  thought  that  improvement 
would  come  with  Home  Rule  ?  When  the  police  and 
part  of  the  judiciary  controlled  now  from  London 
were  delivered  to  the  Irish  themselves,  more  probably 
the  result  would  be  that  politicians  could  the  better 
control  their  followers  and  crush  those  who  tried  to 
oppose  them. 

Even  if  it  were  right  to  give  Irish  Nationalists  over 
to  rule  of  this  sort,  ought  the  loyalists  to  be  abandoned 
to  such  fate?  If  the  Unionists  would  be  worse  off 
under  Home  Rule,  then  the  change  would  be  detri- 
mental to  one-third  of  the  entire  population  of  the 
island,  men  and  women  who  claimed  as  their  birth- 
right the  privileges  of  free  British  citizens.  Shame 
on  England,  if  they  were  deserted!  Most  of  them, 
concentrated  in  northeastern  Ulster,  might  then  look 
for  grievous  economic  discrimination;  but  in  all  parts 
of  Ireland  the  minority  might  expect  gradually  to  see 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     279 

the  schools  sectarian  and  their  children  deprived  of 
facilities  for  education,  the  courts  failing  to  do  them 
justice,  the  police  not  giving  protection,  and  them- 
selves for  the  most  part  excluded  from  public  office. 

Above  all  there  was  a  thing  to  be  feared  by  Prot- 
estant Unionists,  and  that  was  the  probability  that 
under  Home  Rule  the  overwhelming  majority  of 
Catholic  voters  would  gradually  but  surely  put  much 
of  the  government  in  the  hands  of  the  church.  The 
present  power  of  the  priests  was  well  known ;  but  they 
were  eagerly  awaiting  wider  opportunity  to  come.  In 
1912,  it  was  said,  the  Reverend  Gerald  O'Nolan  de- 
clared : 

We  shall  have  a  free  hand  in  the  future.  Let  us  use  it 
well.  This  is  a  Catholic  country,  and  if  we  do  not  govern 
it  on  Catholic  lines,  according  to  Catholic  ideals,  and  to  safe- 
guard Catholic  interests,  it  will  be  all  the  worse  for  the  coun- 
try and  all  the  worse  for  us.  Here  it  is  that  religion  and 
nationality  meet,  and  may,  and  should,  go  hand-in-hand.3 

The  priests  now  controlled  the  devout  and  warm- 
hearted Irish  people,  easily  stirred  to  passionate 
hatred  of  the  Protestant  faith.  Intolerance  and  out- 
rage were  common.  Writers  asserted  that  the  opera- 
tion of  the  decree  Ne  Temere  denied  the  validity  of 
marriage  not  performed  by  Catholic  clergy,  thus  plac- 
ing it  as  regards  Catholics  beyond  the  regulation  of 
the  civil  authorities  and  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
church ;  and  that  the  decree  Motu  Proprio  tended  with 

s  Belfast  Irish  Newt,  December  2,  1912. 


280    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

respect  to  Catholics  to  put  ecclesiastics  where  they 
had  been  in  the  Middle  Ages,  beyond  the  jurisdiction 
of  lay  tribunals.  Now  if  such  were  the  case  at  pres- 
ent, how  much  greater  would  be  the  power  of  the 
Church  when  the  government  of  Ireland  was  entirely 
controlled  by  Roman  Catholics!  That  was  why  the 
Irish  Protestants  so  earnestly  entreated  that  they  be 
not  abandoned  by  England. 

To  all  this  the  Liberals  made  answer.  There  was 
no  religious  danger.  Some  advocates  of  Home  Rule 
did  indeed  believe  that  for  an  interval  Catholic  ma- 
jorities influenced  by  the  priests  would  be  oppressive, 
but  that  matters  would  right  themselves  after  a  while. 
Others,  however,  were  certain  that  Irish  Catholics 
would  not  oppress  Protestants  if  they  could.  They 
said  that  John  Wesley  had  long  ago  noted  the  kindli- 
ness of  peasants  and  priests.  They  quoted  the  his- 
torian Lecky : 

Amongst  the  Catholics,  at  any  rate,  religious  intolerance 
has  never  been  a  prevailing  vice ;  and  those  who  have  studied 
closely  the  history  and  character  of  the  Irish  people  can 
hardly  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  deep  respect  for  sincere  re- 
ligion, in  every  form,  which  they  have  commonly  evinced.4 

There  were  at  the  present  time  eminent  Protestants 
who  declared  they  had  always  been  treated  fairly  by 
Catholic  neighbors,  and  that  they  did  not  fear  a  gov- 
ernment controlled  by  such  men.  It  was  well  known 
that  Catholic  Irishmen  had  often  followed  Protestant 

4  Quoted  by  Jeremiah  MacVeagh,  Home  Rule  or  Rome  Rule  (Lon- 
don, 1912),  p.  12. 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE    281 

leaders — everyone  knew  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  and 
Parnell.  Much  evidence  was  given  to  show  that  in 
Catholic  districts  Protestants  were  often  elected  to 
serve  on  the  local  governing  bodies.  Much  more  was 
given  to  show  that  intolerance  and  discrimination 
were  mostly  from  Protestants:  wherever  Protestants 
were  in  minority  they  got  more  than  their  share  of 
public  appointments,  but  where  Unionists  were  in 
greater  number  they  did  all  they  could  to  exclude 
Roman  Catholics  from  influence  and  power.  Gov- 
erning bodies  in  some  Catholic  districts  employed 
about  as  many  Protestants  as  Catholics;  but  in  the 
Protestant  corporation  of  Belfast  less  than  one-fiftieth 
of  the  salaries  went  to  Catholics,  and  no  Romanist 
had  ever  been  the  lord  mayor.  The  Home  Rule 
Council  declared  that  there  was  no  religious  intoler- 
ance in  Ireland  outside  the  Tory  part  of  Ulster ;  and 
one  writer  asked  whether  in  view  of  all  the  facts  that 
were  given  Catholics  could  not  be  trusted  to  deal 
fairly,  indeed  generously,  with  Protestants  in  Ireland. 
As  to  the  priests,  where  self-government  existed, 
their  power  was  ever  checked  by  public  opinion.  So 
it  was  in  France,  in  Austria,  in  Italy,  in  Belgium,  and 
even  in  Portugal  and  Spain.  Catholics  had  the  ma- 
jority in  Bavaria  and  Baden,  but  they  did  not  perse- 
cute any  longer.  Wherever  there  was  a  free  parlia- 
ment religious  persecution  could  not  thrive,  said  one 
of  the  leaflets.  Unionists  proclaimed  that  Home 
Rule  would  mean  Rome  Rule,  but  it  was  very  doubtful 
whether  with  self-government  politics  could  be  con- 


282          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

trolled  in  the  interests  of  the  church,  or  direction  would 
come  from  Rome.  Not  often  had  the  Pope  inter- 
fered in  Irish  politics  except  at  England's  request, 
and  Irish  Catholics  had  not  always  obeyed  him  in  po- 
litical matters.  Cardinal  Gonsalvi's  acceptance  once 
of  the  English  government's  scheme  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  Irish  bishops  was  defeated  by  the  Catholic 
laity  headed  by  Daniel  O'Connell,  who  said:  "I 
would  as  soon  receive  my  politics  from  Constantinople 
as  from  Rome."  5  And  it  was  not  forgotten  that  in 
1883  subscriptions  for  the  testimonial  to  Parnell  were 
collected  in  defiance  of  a  papal  rescript,  which  Na- 
tionalists then  denounced  as  an  unwarrantable  inter- 
ference with  their  political  rights.  They  had  said 
that  their  religion  was  independent  of  England  and 
their  politics  independent  of  Rome. 

But  disregarding  all  these  things,  religious  oppres- 
sion of  the  minority  would  be  impossible.  The  Home 
Rule  Bill  dealt  with  this  matter  directly: 

In  the  exercise  of  their  power  to  make  laws  under  this  act, 
the  Irish  Parliament  shall  not  make  a  law  so  as  either  directly 
or  indirectly  to  establish  or  endow  any  religion,  or  prohibit 
the  free  exercise  thereof,  or  give  a  preference,  privilege,  or 
advantage,  or  impose  any  disability  or  disadvantage,  on  ac- 
count of  religious  belief  or  religious  or  ecclesiastical  status, 
or  make  any  religious  belief  or  religious  ceremony  a  condi- 
tion of  the  validity  of  any  marriage. 

Thus  there  could  be  no  religious  intolerance  on  the 

s  Quoted  in  Home  Rule  ?'s  Answered,  p.  52. 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     283 

part  of  an  Irish  government;  it  would  never  have 
power  to  set  up  a  state  religion,  or  discriminate  against 
the  adherents  of  other  faiths.  As  for  the  papal  de- 
crees so  much  talked  about,  they  would  have  no  force 
whatever  so  far  as  the  law  of  the  land  was  con- 
cerned. 

Unionists  went  much  farther.  They  said  that 
whatever  the  needs  of  Ireland  were,  and  however  suc- 
cessful Home  Rule  might  be,  even  if  the  minority 
were  not  oppressed  by  its  operation,  yet  there  were 
reasons  why  it  would  probably  be  inconsistent  with 
the  interests  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  perhaps 
greatly  dangerous  and  detrimental.  Home  Rule 
meant  the  beginning  of  a  disruption  of  a  union  which 
had  been  built  up  through  many  centuries,  by  a  long 
succession  of  statesmen,  to  satisfy  fundamental  needs. 
It  was  proposed  to  give  Home  Rule  now,  but  what 
Irishmen  really  wanted  was  complete  separation, 
whenever  that  could  be  achieved.  Irishmen  were  not 
loyal.  The  story  once  told  by  Sir  Henry  Lucy  was 
widely  retold,  how  in  1902  the  Irish  members  had 
rejoiced  in  the  House  of  Commons,  with  merry  laugh- 
ter and  ghoul-like  ecstasy,  when  there  was  news  of 
Methuen's  defeat  in  the  Boer  War.  There  was  many 
a  colored  cartoon  of  Redmond  dancing  with  glee  at  the 
news.  The  British  army  had  been  referred  to  as  the 
most  degraded  and  immoral  force  in  Europe.  It  was 
said  that  the  disloyalty  appeared  particularly  in  the 
attitude  of  some  Irishmen  toward  the  Germans.  In 
1909  the  Kilkenny  People  said:  "Should  they  land 


284    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

in  Ireland,  they  will  be  received  with  willing  hearts 
and  strong  hands."  6 

These  disquieting  things  would  not  come  to  an  end 
when  Ireland  got  Home  Rule,  since  it  was  complete 
independence  and  entire  separation  which  she  wanted. 
Words  were  recalled  from  the  inscription  upon  the 
monument  to  Parnell  unveiled  in  Dublin  in  1911: 
"We  have  never  attempted  to  fix  the  Ne  plus  ultra 
to  the  progress  of  Ireland's  nationhood  and  we  never 
shall."  7  It  was  widely  repeated  that  in  some  of  his 
American  speeches  Mr.  Redmond  seemed  to  look  for- 
ward to  the  goal  of  national  independence.  It  was 
not  very  clearly  seen,  perhaps,  but  Unionists  did  dis- 
cern something  of  a  feeling  that  was  growing,  the 
desire  for  national  individuality  like  that  of  Germany 
or  France.  An  Irish  newspaper  had  declared  that 
it  had  nothing  but  loathing  and  contempt  for  the  men 
who  spoke  so  idly  about  "this  Home  Rule  Bill  uniting 
us  in  bonds  of  love  and  loyalty  to  the  British  Em- 
pire." Unionists  said  there  was  some  truth  in  what 
John  Bright  had  written  long  before,  that  if  the  Irish 
had  their  way  they  would  join  themselves  to  the 
United  States. 

These  forebodings  might  be  of  things  which  would 
not  come  to  pass,  but  here  was  a  matter  of  such  vast 
and  primary  importance  that  Britain  could  never  take 
any  chance  of  their  fulfillment.  The  geographical 

«  Kilkenny  People,  December  4,  1909. 

7  Leaflet:     "Sinn  Fein"  and  the  Home  Rule  Bill  (The  Unionist  Asso- 
ciations of  Ireland). 

s  Tipperary  Star,  May  25,  1912. 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE    285 

position  of  Ireland  was  such  that  in  any  great  con- 
test, if  Ireland  were  hostile  or  in  the  enemy's  hands, 
nay,  if  Ireland  were  not  part  of  the  British  scheme 
of  defence,  then  Britain,  it  might  be,  was  doomed. 
The  National  Union  of  Conservative  and  Constitu- 
tional Associations  declared  that  Home  Rule  involved 
the  erection  of  a  hostile  state  only  sixty  miles  from 
England,  which  would  be  a  perpetual  source  of  alarm 
in  the  event  of  continental  complications,  and  at  the 
worst  it  might  set  up  an  enemy  in  the  rear  of  Great 
Britain.     This  would  involve  the  weakening  of  British 
defensive  power,  and  necessarily  entail  an  increase  in 
the  British  army  and  the  maintaining  of  a  powerful 
fleet  to  watch  the  Irish  coast.     It  was  also  said  that 
in  a  military  and  naval  sense  the  two  countries  were 
one  area  of  operations  and  supply,  and  in  the  present 
situation  of  European  affairs,  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union  might  bring  about  strategic  consequences  and 
disasters  not  to  be  estimated.     It  was  all  very  well 
for  the  Liberals  to  say,  as  they  did  so  insistently,  that 
in  other  years  it  had  been  the  practice  of  the  British 
Empire  to  grant  self-government  to  the  great  colonies, 
such  as  Canada,  Australia,  and  South  Africa,  that 
there  had  always  been  good  results  from  this,  and  if 
the  same  were  done  for  Ireland,  like  happy  conse- 
quences would  follow.     The  answer  was  that  in  this 
case  the  colonial  analogy  was  misleading,  for  there 
was  an  essential  difference  between  the  position  of 
Ireland  and,  with  unimportant  exceptions,  that  of  any 
of  the  twenty-eight  communities  which  had  received 


286    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Home  Rule.  Almost  all  of  these  places  were  far 
away;  Ireland  was  close  at  hand.  As  yet  the  great 
distance  had  made  it  impossible  for  the  colonies  to  be 
represented  in  the  Imperial  parliament,  but  Ireland 
had  representatives  there,  and  more  than  her  popula- 
tion gave  warrant  for.  Some  of  the  colonies  had  vast 
future  before  them ;  they  might  rival  the  United  King- 
dom itself ;  even  the  Liberals  would  admit  that  Ireland 
had  little  future  apart  from  Great  Britain.  Irish 
finance  was  inseparably  bound  up  with  that  of  Great 
Britain;  of  the  self-governing  dominions  that  was  not 
true.  Moreover,  in  the  dominions  there  were  no  im- 
portant minorities  which  insisted  upon  remaining 
under  the  British  parliament ;  in  Ireland  always  there 
was  Ulster.  These  distant  dominions  were  practically 
independent;  their  loyalty  was  unquestioned,,  but  if 
ever  they  were  hostile  it  was  not  in  their  power  to 
threaten  the  existence  of  Britain.  But  Ireland  allied 
with  some  foe  could  stop  the  food  of  Great  Britain 
and  give  that  enemy  a  base  of  operations  against  the 
vital  part  of  the  commonwealth. 

Doubtless  there  were  many  who  spoke  with  strong 
feeling  in  behalf  of  interests  of  their  own.  These  last 
contentions,  however,  with  respect  to  the  position  of 
Ireland,  and  the  incalculable  dangers  which  might 
come  from  Home  Rule  if  complete  independence  fol- 
lowed after  it,  with  a  conflict  of  British  and  Irish  re- 
lations in  the  midst  of  European  affairs,  these  argu- 
ments were  advanced  by  some  of  the  wisest  and  most 
thoughtful  men  in  the  Kingdom,  who,  regardless  of 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     287 

political  affiliations,  were  looked  upon  with  deepest 
respect  by  most  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 
When  one  considers  the  European  situation  in  these 
years,  it  is  evident  that  such  reasoning  must  have 
caused  hesitation  to  many  an  Englishman  sincerely 
actuated  by  the  most  generous  feeling  not  only  to  do 
justice  to  Ireland  but  also  to  give  to  Ireland  whatever 
her  people  desired. 

Advocates  of  Home  Rule  answered  that  there  was 
no  danger  of  the  separation  so  much  feared.  The 
vast  majority  of  Irishmen  had  no  wish  whatever  for 
complete  independence.  It  was  not  wise  to  give  too 
much  attention  to  the  sayings  of  embittered  emigrants 
in  America,  or  the  heated  outbursts  of  extremists  in 
Ireland.  Undoubtedly  there  were  at  present  some 
who  spoke  thus,  but  time  and  the  operation  of  self- 
government  would  change  their  feelings.  Was  it 
just  that  the  sentiments  of  the  Irish  people  should 
always  be  judged  in  England  by  the  hasty  and  wrath- 
ful words  of  a  few,  whose  minds  were  altogether  in 
the  past  or  else  in  a  far  distant  future  ?  Was  Ireland 
never  to  be  considered  in  respect  of  the  words  of  her 
responsible  leaders  and  the  great  body  of  people  who 
followed  them?  Ireland  desired  no  severance  from 
the  Empire.  She  knew  that  she  was  too  small  to 
stand  alone  in  the  modern  world.  It  was  certain  that 
her  economic  prosperity  was  altogether  dependent 
upon  intimate  business  relations  with  Great  Britain. 
For  ages  England  had  always  been  the  principal 
market  for  Irish  goods.  Six-sevenths  of  Ireland's 


288    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

trade  and  most  of  her  business  was  with  Britain.  In 
1910  her  total  exports  amounted  to  £66,000,000;  her 
direct  trade  with  foreign  nations  was  little  more  than 
£1,500,000-  Furthermore,  the  Old  Age  Pension  Act 
had  bound  Ireland  to  England  by  financial  ties  which 
Irishmen  would  not  wish  to  break.  But  again  let  it 
be  said  that  Irishmen  did  not  want  separation.  It 
was  all  very  well  to  quote  some  of  Mr.  Redmond's 
earlier  speeches;  his  ideas  had  changed  in  the  course 
of  time,  and  over  and  over  again  he  had  declared  that 
separation  was  impossible.  "We  deny  that  we  are 
separatists  and  we  say  we  are  willing  ...  to  accept 
a  subordinate  Parliament  created  by  statute  of  this 
Imperial  Legislature  as  a  final  settlement  of  Ireland's 
claims."  9 

But  supposing  that  there  was  the  desire  for  inde- 
pendence alleged.  The  proposed  Home  Rule  legis- 
lation provided  ample  security  against  it.  In  gen- 
eral matters  the  government  at  London  would  retain 
its  powers  undiminished.  The  Bill  declared: 

Notwithstanding  the  Establishment  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
or  anything  contained  in  this  Act,  the  supreme  power  and 
authority  of  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  shall  re- 
main unaffected  and  undiminished  over  all  persons,  matters, 
and  things  within  his  Majesty's  dominions. 

The  Imperial  parliament  would  make  all  laws  con- 
cerning the  crown,  the  succession,  regency,  foreign 
affairs,  treaties,  war  and  peace,  the  navy,  the  army, 

»  Speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  April  11,  1912. 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     289 

and  any  armed  forces.  If  the  Irish  parliament  at- 
tempted to  deal  with  such  matters,  its  statutes  would 
be  void.  It  was  because  the  parliament  of  West- 
minster and  not  the  Irish  body  was  to  be  supreme  in 
affairs  affecting  all  the  Kingdom  that  Ireland  was  to 
continue  with  representation  in  the  Imperial  body. 

Irishmen  were  not  disloyal.  It  might  be  that  some 
were  not  to  be  trusted,  but  was  that  surprising? 
Irishmen  had  rejoiced  in  British  disasters,  as  when 
the  defeats  in  South  Africa  were  announced,  but,  said 
a  Liberal  leaflet,  "the  men  who  cheered  the  defeat  can 
be  made  proud  of  their  connection  with  Great  Britain 
and  the  Empire  by  a  gift  ...  of  Home  Rule."  10 
And  what  of  the  loyal  services  of  Irish  soldiers?  what 
of  the  courage  long  ago  at  Fuentes  d'Onoro,  many  a 
time  afterwards  in  India,  and  even  in  the  Transvaal? 
heroism  which  Queen  Victoria  had  gratefully  ac- 
knowledged? "Don't  forget  how  many  of  us  Irish 
soldiers  died  in  South  Africa  for  the  Empire,"  was 
the  legend  on  a  cartoon  in  colors.11 

Finally,  said  the  Liberals,  even  if  there  were  some 
danger,  there  were  certainly  advantages  also.  In  the 
first  place,  matters  of  local  concern  would  have  to  be 
settled  outside  the  Imperial  parliament,  so  as  to  find 
adequate  time  for  imperial  policy  and  affairs  of  gen- 
eral importance.  But  there  were  things  far  greater 
than  that.  "Home  Rule  the  Secret  of  Empire,"  they 
said.  The  British  Empire  was  not  a  collection  of  de- 

10  Leaflet:     One  Moment  Please  (Liberal  Publication  Department). 

11  Leaflet:    Have  You  Forgotten?  (Liberal  Publication  Department). 


290    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

pendencies  under  the  rule  of  a  central  power,  but,  to  a 
great  extent,  a  mighty  commonwealth  of  free  states 
banded  together  for  mutual  protection  and  defence. 
The  glory  of  its  citizens  was  that  they  had  succeeded 
in  reconciling  colonial  empire  with  local  autonomy. 
There  were  now  twenty-eight  governments  with  Home 
Rule  parliaments,  including  the  Channel  Islands  and 
the  Isle  of  Man,  and  in  all  of  them  self-government 
had  proved  the  greatest  success.  "We  gave  Home 
Rule  to  the  Boers :  why  not  give  Home  Rule  in  purely 
Irish  affairs  to  Irishmen?"  12  Whenever  white  men 
were  governed  against  their  wishes,  they  were  apt  to 
be  disloyal;  true  allegiance  came  with  freedom.  In 
any  event,  with  Ireland  the  alternative  to  Home  Rule 
was  coercion.  Moreover,  self-government  for  Ire- 
land would  strengthen  the  bonds  of  the  Empire;  for 
the  principle  was  cordially  approved  by  the  colonies. 
At  one  of  the  Imperial  Conferences  all  of  the  prime 
ministers  of  the  commonwealths  represented  there 
favored  it.  On  five  occasions  the  Canadian  parlia- 
ment had  passed  resolutions  endorsing  the  Irish  de- 
mand. In  1905  the  Australian  House  of  Representa- 
tives sent  a  petition  to  that  effect  to  the  king.  Home 
Rule  for  Ireland  would  probably  draw  the  colonial 
commonwealths  closer  in  Imperial  federation. 

And  Home  Rule  for  Ireland  was  the  condition  of  a 
scheme  even  grander.  There  were  some  statesmen 
who  dreamed  of  a  future  when  all  the  English-speak- 
ing peoples  would  be  drawn  closer  together,  and  so 

12  Leaflet:    How  South  Africa  Became  Loyal  (Home  Rule  Council). 


ARGUMENTS  ABOUT  HOME  RULE     291 

have  greater  security  and  power,  for  their  common 
civilization  and  ideals,  not  only  the  British  Isles  and 
the  overseas  dominions,  but  also  the  United  States  of 
America.  Such  mighty  work  must  be  done  in  slow 
stages.  First,  perhaps,  an  arbitration  treaty,  after- 
wards some  sort  of  an  understanding,  in  the  end,  it 
might  be,  an  alliance.  There  were  many  reasons  why 
this  should  be  brought  to  pass,  but  there  was  also  one 
fatal  obstacle.  Irishmen  had  gone  forth  to  the 
colonies,  and  above  all  to  the  United  States,  taking 
with  them  unquenchable  hatred,  and  resolved  to 
thwart  whatever  England  desired.  In  1910  a  writer 
declared : 

It  is  only  one  acute  sign  of  the  fact  known  to  every  one 
who  makes  a  candid  study  of  American  conditions  that  there 
is  no  possibility  not  only  of  an  alliance  but  of  a  close  rap- 
prochement, or  even  of  a  permanent  treaty  of  arbitration 
between  the  British  Empire  and  the  American  Republic 
while  the  Irish  question  remains  on  its  present  footing.  To 
place  it  on  a  different  footing  has  become  one  of  the  chief 
needs  of  our  foreign  policy.13 

In  1913  Earl  Grey  said  in  the  House  of  Lords  that 
he  felt  the  imperative  necessity  of  settling  the  Irish 
question  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  the  overseas 
democracies,  both  the  colonies  and  the  United  States. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  had  already  declared  that  the  pre- 
liminary condition  of  closer  relations  was  the  recon- 

13  J.  L.  Garvin,  in  Fortnightly  Review,  November,  1910,  quoted  in  Is 
It  Safe  to  dive  Ireland  Home  Rule?  (Liberal  Publication  Department), 
>.  13. 


292    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

cilement  to  England  of  Irish  sentiment  in  America. 
How  much,  then,  was  there  to  gain!  Home  Rule 
would  settle  the  Irish  question,  hitherto  a  perpetual 
trouble  to  Great  Britain,  and  in  the  larger  affairs  of 
the  future  it  might  bring  to  England  warm  friends 
from  among  those  who  now  stood  aloof  or  merely  in 
proper  relation's. 

Had  these  arguments  on  one  side  or  the  other  been 
all  that  were  given,  it  may  t>e  that  after  a  while,  in  the 
manner  of  Britishers,  the  Unionists,  outvoted  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  would  have  acquiesced  in  the  will 
of  the  majority,  and  ceased  opposition.  But  there 
was  another  factor  which  these  arguments  touched 
only  in  part,  which  would  admit  of  no  compromise, 
and  against  which  all  arguments  seemed  vain.  In 
the  midst  of  the  controversy,  the  people  of  Ulster  who 
followed  the  Covenant,  stood  aloof,  stern  and  disdain- 
ful. While  others  talked,  they  prepared  resolutely  to 
fight.  Most  probably,  as  things  now  were,  the  Irish 
question  could  be  settled  so  far  as  it  was  to  be  settled 
between  England  and  Ireland.  The  insuperable  dif- 
ficulty was  a  division  between  two  parts  of  Ireland 
itself.  Certainly  the  Irish  question  in  these  last 
years  can  in  no  wise  be  understood  without  examina- 
tion of  the  fears  and  pretensions  of  Ulster, 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ULSTER 

There  are  not  in  His  Majesty's  dominions  a  more  loyal 
set  of  men  than  those  who  constitute  the  great  community 
for  which  we  are  fighting  .  .  .  we  may  be  coerced  into  sub- 
mission, but  if  we  are  we  will  be  governed  as  a  conquered 
community  and  nothing  else. 

Speech  of  Sir  Edward  Carson  at  Belfast, 
September  24,  1913. 

THE  problem  of  Ulster  became  acute  when  Glad- 
stone brought  before  parliament  his  first  Home 
Rule  Bill,  but  the  roots  of  the  matter  were  much  more 
remote  in  the  past.  Some  writers  have  seen  in  the 
most  ancient  legend  and  literature  of  Ireland  dim 
evidence  that  in  earliest  time  there  was  difference  be- 
tween the  people  of  Ulster  and  the  other  inhabitants 
of  the  island,  a  difference  marked  even  in  an  age  of 
tribal  disunion.  But  more  truly  the  division,  which  in 
1914  seemed  to  make  hopeless  all  efforts  at  agreement, 
went  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  was  part  of  the  story  of  the  taking  of  the  country 
by  British  invaders.  I  have  already  briefly  told  the 
story  of  the  conquest,  how  unfortunately  for  a  long 
while  it  was  partial  and  incomplete,  so  that  down  to 
the  time  of  the  Reformation  not  much  more  than  the 
coast  country  was  in  possession  of  the  English;  and 

293 


294    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

how  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  the 
island  was  altogether  subdued  and  taken  by  the  for- 
eigner; how  in  this  last  fatal  period  part  of  the  work 
was  accomplished  by  the  device  of  establishing  plan- 
tations, the  clearing  of  the  inhabitants  from  some  dis- 
tricts and  giving  the  lands  thus  obtained  to  immigrants 
from  over  the  Channel.  In  the  days  of  James  I  the 
confiscated  lands  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnel  were  used 
to  found  the  plantation  of  Ulster,  to  which  were 
brought  English  and  Scottish  settlers  from  the  border 
district  of  Britain,  men  and  women  hardy,  tenacious, 
daring,  and  strong,  independent  in  character,  dour  in 
religious  temperament,  with  the  sternness  of  the  Prot- 
estantism of  the  north.  From  the  lands  upon  which 
these  newcomers  were  planted  the  natives  were  largely 
removed,  though  many  were  allowed  to  remain  to 
work  for  the  new  proprietors. 

After  the  Reformation  and  after  the  complete  con- 
quest there  were  in  the  island  two  separate  entities, 
almost  two  separate  nationalities.  One  was  largely 
Celtic,  Catholic,  politically  backward,  and  economi- 
cally depressed,  ignorant,  poor,  exploited  by  aliens, 
with  hopeless  outlook  and  fierce  hatred  for  the  de- 
spoiler.  The  other  wa's  Anglo-Saxon  and  Protestant, 
Episcopalian,  Presbyterian,  and  dissenter,  large  pro- 
prietors or  substantial  artisans  and  farmers,  under 
British  authority  ruling,  or  allied  with  the  ruling  class, 
always  proud,  sometimes  prosperous  and  successful. 

The  invaders  who  dwelt  in  Ireland,  even  in  this  later 
time,  long  lived  like  a  garrison.  There  were  vicissi- 


ULSTER  295 

tudes  and  dreadful  struggles  before  their  supremacy 
was  confirmed.  There  were  the  days  of  the  Irish  up- 
rising in  the  time  of  Charles  I,  and  the  other  days 
when  Cromwell  came  with  stern  and  exalted  soldiery 
to  slaughter  garrisons  that  resisted,  and  hunt  the 
enemy  through  endless  flight  in  fens  and  bog,  after 
which  there  was  security  for  the  alien.  There  was  the 
time  when  James  II,  outcast,  came  over  from  France 
to  lead  his  Irish  subjects,  up  in  arms  for  him  and 
themselves.  Then  their  enemies  were  persecuted,  de- 
prived of  their  property  and  driven  over  the  sea  for 
refuge.  Almost  were  the  colonists  submerged  in  the 
deluge,  but  stern  bodies  of  men  held  out  in  Ennis- 
killen,  and  finally  in  Londonderry  far  in  the  north 
through  a  siege  heroic  and  very  memorable  in  the 
annals  of  the  island.  And  there  were  those  other 
times,  so  hopeless  for  the  natives,  when  James  had 
fled  from  the  Boyne,  and  Limerick  had  surrendered, 
and  the  Irish  cause  was  finally  lost,  when  spirited 
Irishmen  went  to  serve  abroad,  and  Ireland  was  left 
prostrate  to  the  invader.  Those  days  were  long  past, 
but  memory  of  the  fears  and  strife  in  which  men  had 
faced  each  other,  had  left  a  lasting  heritage  of  fear 
and  ill  will  between  the  two  parts  of  the  population  of 
Ireland.  All  through  the  eighteenth  century  the 
Protestant  minority,  living  to  a  considerable  extent  in 
Ulster,  retained  its  supremacy,  and  even  preserved 
some  industrial  and  commercial  prosperity,  though 
this  was  largely  destroyed  even  for  Ulster  by  the  mer- 
cantile policy  of  Great  Britain.  All  through  this  time 


296    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  native  Irish,  the  large  majority  of  the  people,  re- 
mained like  serfs  beneath  their  landlords,  in  extremest 
depression,  but  clinging  with  ever  more  passionate 
devotion  to  their  Roman  Catholic  faith.  The  change 
in  the  spirit  of  rule  and  the  conduct  of  affairs  in  the 
nineteenth  century  made  better  the  condition  of  both 
parties.  After  the  removal  of  economic  restrictions 
Ulster  went  forward  in  manufactures  and  commerce, 
in  the  building  of  ships  and  especially  the  weaving  of 
linen.  Meanwhile  the  Celtic  inhabitants  obtained  re- 
ligious and  political  equality,  and  at  last  assistance 
from  the  state  for  getting  again  the  land  once  lost  by 
their  fathers.  But  in  the  long  course  of  these  things, 
in  the  dominance  of  one  and  the  abasement  of  the 
other,  often  in  times  of  common  suffering,  and  now 
in  the  better  time  of  the  present,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  two  bodies  of  people  in  Ireland  remained 
very  striking.  There  were  occasions  when  Protest- 
ants and  Catholics  had  acted  together;  there  were 
many  times  when  the  inhabitants  of  the  north  had  been 
foremost  in  desiring  greater  freedom  for  Ireland 
from  England.  Yet  essentially  they  continued  apart. 
After  the  industrial  revolution  developed  around  Bel- 
fast in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  part 
of  Ulster  was  drawn  ever  to  closer  union  with  Britain. 
And  when  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century 
comparative  freedom,  better  living,  and  the  rising 
spirit  of  nationality  made  so  many  Irishmen  desire 
some  undoing  of  the  Act  of  Union,  and  the  giving 
them  a  government  of  their  own,  it  could  clearly  be 


ULSTER  297 

seen  that  there  were  in  the  narrow  compass  of  the 
island  two  groups  in  respect  of  religion,  industrial 
organization,  and  political  outlook,  which  some  states- 
men thought  were  not  essentially  different,  but  which 
many  more  saw  to  be  far  more  sundered  than  were 
the  populations  to  the  north  and  the  south  of  the 
Potomac  before  1861,  and  in  spirit  sometimes  virtually 
as  diverse  as  the  inhabitants  of  Germany  and  France. 
So,  while  on  the  one  hand  it  was  most  proper  for  the 
Celtic  majority  to  cherish  earnest  desire  for  as  com- 
plete establishment  of  their  nationality  as  world  af- 
fairs would  permit,  on  the  other  hand,  and  from  the 
other  point  of  view,  men  believed  almost  everything 
that  nationalism  and  prudence  could  urge  made  the 
Protestant  industrial  communities  in  Ulster  cling  to 
the  Union  which  bound  them  to  their  brethren  in 
Great  Britain. 

Considerations  of  religion  came  first.  Such  feeling 
may  have  died  out  in  most  places,  but  in  Ireland  much 
of  the  religious  intolerance  and  distrust  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  lingered  as  fiercely  as  in  the  days  when 
the  Reverend  George  Walker  led  the  citizens  of  Lon- 
donderry on  through  their  memorable  defence. 
Nothing  could  convince  a  great  many  that  Home  Rule 
did  not  mean  "Rome  Rule,"  as  they  said.  According 
to  a  leaflet  of  the  Ulster  Unionist  Council,  their  fears 
were  of  what  a  Romanist  once  had  declared : 


"When  you  are  masters,"  he  said  to  the  Liberals  and  Prot- 
estants, "we  claim  perfect  liberty  for  ourselves,  as  your  prin- 


298    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ciples  require  it ;  when  we  are  the  masters  we  refuse  it  to  you, 
as  it  is  contrary  to  our  principles."  l 

"The  history  of  a  thousand  years,"  said  another,  "has 
taught  us  that  when  the  Roman  Church  can  control  a 
government,  it  employs  the  government  to  repress 
or  to  crush  heretics,  and  Protestants  are  the  worst  of 
heretics."  2  Ulstermen  declared  repeatedly  that  if 
the  present  protection  were  withdrawn,  the  Catholic 
church  would  find  means  to  make  its  will  prevail  in 
spite  of  any  law,  that  in  the  end  under  Home  Rule 
they  would  have  neither  justice  nor  safety.  A  con- 
vention held  at  Belfast  in  1912  issued  the  statement: 

Presbyterians  are  convinced  that  the  power  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  over  her  members  would  be  used  through  an  Irish 
Parliament  and  Executive  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith,  and  to  the  detriment  of  the  Evangelical 
Churches.3 

Outsiders  might  deride  these  statements  as  coming 
from  the  intolerance  of  bigots,  but  they  seemed  reason- 
able to  many  in  Ulster.  It  was  said  that  priests  had 
nearly  complete  control  over  the  lives  of  their  people, 
that  they  worked  upon  ignorance  and  religious  belief 
so  as  to  secure  through  the  testaments  of  the  fearful 
and  the  superstitious  a  constantly  increasing  propor- 
tion of  the  property  of  Ireland,  that  they  lived  with 

1  Veuillot  quoted  by  Lecky  and  reprinted  in  leaflet:     Home  Rule  and 
Rome  Rule. 

2  Letter  of  Dr.  Horton  in  London  Times,  February  10,  1912. 

3  Home   Rule :    Statement  Prepared  and  Issued  in  Pursuance   of  a 
Resolution  of  the  Presbyterian  Convention,  Held  at  Belfast,  on  1st  Feb- 
ruary, 1912  (Belfast,  1912),  p.  7. 


ULSTER  299 

the  power,  prosperity,  and  well-being  of  the  Catholic 
ecclesiastics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  that  having  their 
parishioners  completely  under  their  domination  they 
took  extraordinary  measures  to  maintain  their  juris- 
diction, that  they  tried  to  keep  the  faithful  from  hav- 
ing any  part  in  the  activities  of  Protestants,  that  they 
would  not  let  them  share  in  charities  or  have  working- 
men's  clubs  or  associations  with  Protestants,  or,  most 
important  of  all,  common  schools.  "I  began  to  see 
that  there  was  something  besides  bigotry,"  said  one 
who  went  there  to  study  the  matter.4  Some  asserted 
that  the  Irish  people  were  the  most  thoroughly  Cath- 
olic in  the  world.  It  was  said  that  Irish  Catholic 
ecclesiastical  organization  was  particularly  powerful. 
The  Irish  population  had  been  declining,  but  the 
number  of  priests  had  increased,  until  the  host  of 
churchmen  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  number  of 
the  people,  far  beyond  anything  similar  in  countries 
like  Austria  or  Belgium.  Ireland  was  "Paraguay  on 
the  Shannon."  Was  it  to  be  doubted  that  in  politics 
these  churchmen  would  work  for  the  greater  glory  of 
their  church  ?  It  was  said  that  priests  told  their  flocks 
at  election  time  that  voters  who  supported  Unionist 
candidates  would  be  responsible  for  it  at  the  Day  of 
Judgment. 

Partisans  of  Ulster  proclaimed  that  a  Roman 
Catholic  government  would  deliver  education  entirely 
to  the  church,  making  it  a  monopoly  of  Jesuits  and 

<H.  H.  Fyfe,  Ulster  To-Day:     The  Whole  Truth  (reprinted  from  the 
Daily  Mail),  p.  24. 


300    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

various  teaching  orders  of  Rome.  In  1912  the  Irish 
Methodists  issued  a  statement  based  on  Michael  Mc- 
Carthy's assertion,  that  with  some  negligible  excep- 
tions there  was  not  a  secondary  Roman  Catholic 
school  kept  by  laymen  in  the  British  Isles,  that  all 
of  them  were  owned  by  priests,  monks,  and  nuns,  and 
conducted  on  Jesuit  principles.  It  was  said  that  the 
Catholic  hierarchy  ever  denounced  as  godless  the 
teachings  of  others,  and  forbade  Catholic  children  to 
be  taught  along  with  those  of  the  other  faith.  Even 
now  Irish  education  was  slowly  tending  towards 
Catholic  methods  and  ideals;  under  Home  Rule  all 
would  be  controlled  by  the  Vatican,  Irish  primary 
education  would  be  sectarianized,  and  provision  for 
Protestant  minorities  in  Nationalist  districts  would  be 
stopped  throughout  Ireland.  Also  the  supremacy  of 
the  church  in  politics  would  bring  it  about  that  public 
institutions  like  hospitals  and  work-houses,  supported 
by  the  state  or  by  public  contribution,  would  come 
under  control  of  the  church. 

A  great  deal  was  made  of  the  Ne  Temere  decree  of 
1907.  There  was  account  widely  given  of  a  scandal: 
a  Roman  Catholic  married  to  a  Presbyterian  girl  in 
her  church  and  with  every  legal  formality,  who  lived 
with  her  happily  until  after  the  first  child  was  born, 
but  who  before  the  birth  of  the  second,  influenced  by 
the  priest,  began  to  doubt  the  validity  of  a  marriage 
not  performed  in  the  Catholic  church,  who  afterwards 
removed  and  hid  the  children,  and  when  she  refused 
to  change  her  religion,  abandoned  her  altogether. 


ULSTER  301 

She  did  not,  ran  the  tale,  see  her  husband  or  children 
again.  When  such  things  are  done,  it  was  asked,  in 
broad  daylight  under  the  rule  of  the  Imperial  parlia- 
ment, what  might  Irish  Protestants  expect  under  a 
Dublin  parliament  controlled  by  the  Catholic  Church? 
A  very  striking  pamphlet  was  written  to  terrify 
Protestants  by  example  of  what  happened  in  another 
place  where  political  control  had  been  gained  by  the 
Catholics.  Once,  it  was  said,  Canada  had  been  a 
Crown  colony,  ruled  from  Downing  Street;  later  on 
each  part  or  province  had  received  its  own  legislature 
and  home  rule.  One  of  them  was  Quebec,  thereto- 
fore joined  with  Ontario.  There  had  been  a  Protest- 
ant minority  in  Quebec  opposed  to  a  separation  from 
Ontario,  which  would  leave  them  at  the  mercy  of  a 
Catholic  majority  and  priesthood.  Their  position, 
then,  was  exactly  like  that  of  the  Protestants  in  north 
Ireland  now  resisting  a  similar  measure.  In  Quebec 
the  Catholic  leaders  had  had  no  desire,  so  they  said, 
to  interfere  with  the  rights  of  the  Protestants,  and 
had  willingly  consented  to  embody  in  the  new  consti- 
tution guarantees  to  protect  them.  The  separation 
had  been  effected,  forty-five  years  ago.  Let  Prot- 
estants of  Ulster  know  what  had  followed.  Roman 
Catholics  had  first  got  complete  control  of  the  legis- 
lature, then  of  the  courts  and  the  schools.  Money 
voted  by  the  state  for  education  was  spent  as  the 
bishops  ordered.  No  bill  affecting  education  could  be 
passed  without  the  sanction  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Quebec.  The  schools  consequently  were  used  to 


302    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

train  children  in  the  doctrines  and  ritual  of  the  papacy, 
so  that  hundreds  of  Protestant  farmers,  isolated 
among  the  Catholics,  kept  their  children  from  schools 
which  they  were  compelled  to  support  with  their  taxes. 
Convents  and  monasteries,  subsidized  by  the  state, 
multiplied  in  prosperity.  The  priesthood  became 
more  and  more  powerful  and  greedy.  The  arch- 
bishop in  his  palace  was  the  real  ruler  of  Quebec. 
One-seventh  of  the  public  revenues  went  for  the  use 
of  the  church.  Once  there  had  been  17,000  Protest- 
ants in  the  city  of  Quebec ;  now  there  were  only  4,000. 
As  fast  as  possible  they  were  leaving  the  country. 
Many  had  gone  to  the  United  States.  The  author  did 
not  say,  what  may  not  have  seemed  relevant  to  his 
exposition,  that  in  the  same  time  that  so  many  Prot- 
estants had  come  to  the  United  States  from  the  Cath- 
olic province,  a  far  greater  number  of  Catholics  had 
also  come,  drawn  largely  by  economic  conditions ;  but 
he  did  declare  that  the  people  of  Ulster  could  not  so 
easily  get  away  from  the  dominion  of  the  threatened 
Dublin  parliament.5 

It  was  difficult  even  for  those  in  the  midst  of  the 
controversy  to  know  how  far  these  fears  were  ground- 
less or  exaggerated,  and  only  simulated  for  political 
purposes.  There  were  a  great  many  noble  and  liberal 
statements  from  Catholics,  and  also  from  Irish  Prot- 

5  Ulster  and  Home  Rule:  A  Canadian  Parallel,  by  Mr.  Robert  Sel- 
lar,  Quebec,  Author  of  "The  Tragedy  of  Quebec"  (Belfast,  1912). 
This  pamphlet  was  based  upon  letters  which  first  appeared  in  the  Bel- 
fast Witness.  It  was  reprinted  in  various  forms  and  received  the  widest 
possible  circulation. 


ULSTER  303 

estants,  even  in  Ulster,  who  declared  that  they  had  no 
apprehension.  There  were  many  stories  about  hu- 
mane and  friendly  priests.  There  were  also  those 
who  said  that  Irish  Catholics  were  broad-minded  and 
fair,  and  that  bigotry  and  intolerance  were  mostly  on 
the  other  side.  Many  figures  were  adduced  to  prove 
that  the  actual  discrimination  was  not  by  Catholics 
against  Presbyterians  and  Methodists,  but  by  Episco- 
palians against  all  the  others.  It  was  said  that  these 
fears  had  long  been  raised  and  religious  differences 
heightened  for  a  selfish  purpose: 

As  long  as  embittered  relations  could  be  prolonged  between 
the  various  denominations,  the  landlords  were  able  to  collect 
their  rents  without  difficulty ;  and  successive  Governments 
foolishly  believed  that  religious  differences  made  it  easier  to 
govern  the  country.  When,  however,  Self-Government  is 
brought  into  being,  the  members  of  all  religious  denomina- 
tions will  have  something  very  different  to  occupy  their 
minds  and  energies  than  doctrinal  differences.6 

It  was  also  said  that  Ulster  capitalists  and  politicians 
had  awakened  this  religious  strife  so  that  in  the  midst 
of  hatred  and  passion  their  employees  would  think 
less  about  the  starvation  wages  which  were  paid  to 
them. 

The  advocates  of  Home  Rule  did  not  scruple  to  say 
that  the  fears  of  Ulster  resulted  largely  from  ancient 
prejudice  and  bigoted  ideas  inherited  from  olden 
times.  If  only  the  northerners  would,  they  could 

6  Leaflet:     Why  Some  Irish  Protestants  Oppose  Home  Rule   (Home 
Rule  Council). 


304    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

easily  see  that  the  Home  Rule  Bill  provided  ample 
safety  for  the  religion  of  minorities.  But  they  did 
not  answer  so  successfully  the  contention  of  the 
Covenanters  that  it  was  not  so  much  direct  and  specific 
injury  which  they  feared — such  things  the  law  could 
properly  prevent — but  the  indirect  results  of  skilful 
manipulation  of  laws,  the  doing  of  those  things  which 
lie  beyond  the  law  and  depend  upon  the  sentiment  of 
the  majority  of  the  people.  More  successful  was  the 
inquiry  whether  it  was  right  that  the  destiny  of  the 
island  should  be  decided  by  a  minority,  that  Irishmen 
should  not  have  Home  Rule  because  half  of  the  popu- 
lation of  one  of  the  provinces  opposed  it.  In  Ulster 
nearly  half  of  the  people  were  Catholics,  and  some  of 
the  Protestants  favored  Home  Rule.  Of  Ulster's 
representatives  in  the  House  of  Commons  nearly  as 
many  supported  Home  Rule  as  desired  a  continuance 
of  the  Union. 

In  the  second  place  there  were  economic  considera- 
tions which,  if  less  fiercely  urged,  were,  perhaps,  even 
more  important.  Protestant  Ulster  was  the  commer- 
cial and  industrial  portion  of  the  island,  the  rest  of 
Ireland  agricultural  almost  entirely.  Industrial 
Ulster  was  greatly  and  increasingly  prosperous.  The 
population  of  Ireland  had  declined  from  eight  mil- 
lions to  four,  but  the  inhabitants  of  Belfast  had  con- 
stantly increased  in  numbers.  The  city  had  now 
some  of  the  most  flourishing  industries  in  the  world. 
In  1912  the  Belfast  News  Letter  published  an  indus- 
trial map  to  show  that  Ulster,  with  35  per  cent  of  Ire- 


ULSTER  305 

land's  population,  paid  nearly  three  times  as  much 
customs  duties  as  the  rest  of  Ireland,  had  three-fifths 
of  all  Irish  export  trade,  and  owned  three  times  as 
much  shipping  as  all  the  other  parts;  that  Belfast 
alone  paid  one-half  of  all  Irish  taxation,  that  it  had  a 
smaller  number  of  paupers  than  any  other  place  in 
the  United  Kingdom ;  and  that  the  Ulster  towns  were 
thriving  industrial  centers,  their  artisans  numerous, 
sturdy,  and  well  cared  for. 

The  economic  life  of  Ulster,  then,  was  unlike  that 
of  the  other  provinces.  Its  interests  and  its  needs 
were  different.  Under  Home  Rule  there  would  be  a 
parliament  at  Dublin  making  laws  for  the  island  and 
assessing  the  taxes.  This  parliament  would  be  elected 
by  the  Irish  people.  The  majority  would  naturally 
pass  such  laws  as  they  deemed  best,  and  levy  the  taxes 
in  accord  with  their  own  interests.  Ulster  had  only 
a  third  of  the  population,  but  already  she  paid  two- 
thirds  of  the  taxes.  Would  not  the  majority,  repre- 
senting an  agricultural  constituency  poorer  than  its 
northern  neighbors,  heap  taxes  upon  the  industries  of 
the  north  ?  Certainly  they  would  be  able  to  do  it,  with 
a  usual  majority  of  more  than  two  to  one;  and  they 
would  be  apt  to  do  it,  since  not  only  would  they  have 
at  heart  the  interests  of  their  agricultural  constitu- 
ency, but  most  of  them  would  be  entirely  without  any 
experience  with  the  requirements  of  an  industrial  com- 
munity. Not  one  in  fifty  of  them,  perhaps,  would 
ever  have  managed  a  factory  or  employed  as  many  ay 
fifty  hands.  Such  statements  marshalled  in  little 


306    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

pamphlets  sold  at  a  penny  were  circulated  everywhere. 
"Ulster  is  convinced  that  under  Home  Rule  her  in- 
dustries would  be  ruined."  7 

There  was  much  answering  of  these  assertions. 
The  Home  Rule  Council,  which  worked  so  actively 
to  spread  doctrines  favorable  to  its  cause,  declared 
that  after  all  the  prosperity  of  Ulster  depended  pri- 
marily on  its  connections  with  the  rest  of  the  island, 
and  that  this  prosperity  was  being  jeopardized  by 
those  who  spoke  in  such  fashion. 

Lastly,  the  people  of  Ulster,  in  common  with 
Unionists  elsewhere  in  Ireland  and  in  Britain,  dreaded 
certain  political  consequences  which  they  asserted 
would  follow  self-government  in  Ireland.  Home 
Rule,  they  said,  meant  Irish  government  by  the  An- 
cient Order  of  Hibernians  and  the  United  Irish 
League,  with  methods  as  corrupt  and  malignant  as 
those  long  known  in  American  cities  where  Irish  poli- 
ticians held  sway.  Something  of  it,  unfortunately, 
was  already  known  in  Ireland.  Now  the  protection 
of  British  authority  gave  security  to  those  who  dis- 
liked such  politicians,  but  if  this  were  once  withdrawn 
the  power  of  the  higher  leaders  might  be  further  ex- 
tended in  Ulster  and  elsewhere  through  economic 
pressure,  destruction  of  property,  and  secret  terror. 
There  would  doubtless  be  discrimination  in  legislature, 
in  courts,  and  generally  in  public  life,  against  Prot- 

7  Ulster's   Protest:    Her  Industrial,  Political,  Imperial  Reasons   for 
Refusing  to  Submit  to  Home  Rule  (Union  Defence  League,  1914). 


ULSTER  307 

estants  of  Ulster,  so  far  as  they  attracted  the  avarice 
or  stood  in  the  way  of  the  dominant  group. 

Therefore,  Ulster  Unionists,  and  the  English  poli- 
ticians who  abetted  them,  opposed  Home  Rule;  and 
if  it  was  to  be  given,  contrary,  as  they  thought,  to  all 
dictates  of  wisdom,  then  they  insisted  on  the  total  or 
partial  exclusion  of  Ulster  from  the  effects  of  its 
operation.  But  exclusion  was  also  beset  with  in- 
numerable difficulties.  Nationalists  were  unalterably 
opposed  to  having  Home  Rule  only  for  an  Ireland 
from  which  an  indispensable  part  was  left  out.  This, 
they  said,  would  doom  the  whole  thing  to  failure. 
Ireland  and  the  Irish  nation  must  not  be  divided. 
Moreover,  the  situation  was  not  so  simple  as  if  it  had 
merely  involved  the  relations  of  one  province  with  the 
rest  of  the  island.  There  was  not  an  Ulster  entirely 
Protestant  and  industrial,  containing  one-third  of  the 
population,  opposed  to  the  other  three  provinces  pre- 
dominantly agricultural  and  Roman  Catholic.  Ulster 
itself  was  divided.  Only  certain  districts  contained 
now  a  decided  majority  of  Unionists  and  Protestants, 
and  men  constituting  an  industrial  society.  In  some 
of  the  counties  most  of  the  population  was  Nationalist 
and  Roman  Catholic.  According  to  the  census  of 
1911  there  were  about  700,000  Catholics  and  nearly 
900,000  Protestants  of  various  denominations  in  Ul- 
ster. Around  Londonderry  and  Belfast  were  the  dis- 
tricts strongly  opposed  to  Home  Rule.  Indeed  there 
was  good  reason  to  believe  that  in  five  out  of  the  nine 


308          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

counties  advocates  of  Home  Rule  were  more  numer- 
ous. Sometimes  a  majority  of  Ulster's  representa- 
tives in  London  were  in  favor  of  Home  Rule ;  though 
the  Union  Defence  League  explained  that  because  of 
inequalities  in  representation  a  smaller  number  of 
Unionists  represented  a  larger  number  of  voters  and 
people. 

To  obviate  some  of  the  difficulties  there  were  those 
who  suggested  as  a  solution  the  excluding  from  the 
provisions  of  Home  Rule  only  those  counties  of  Ulster 
in  which  the  greater  number  of  the  inhabitants  were 
opposed  to  it.  But  the  difficulty  was  that  in  every 
county  excepting  Antrim  and  Down  the  populations 
were  so  mingled  together  that  there  would  probably 
be  a  desperate  struggle  between  the  two  parties  for 
the  possession  of  debatable  areas.  A  few  months 
before  the  beginning  of  the  European  crisis  Mr.  As- 
quith  proposed  as  a  compromise  that  the  Unionist 
counties  of  Ulster  might,  if  they  wished,  be  excluded 
from  the  provisions  of  the  Home  Rule  law  for  six 
years;  but  Ulster  Unionists  wanted  permanent  not 
temporary  exclusion,  and  the  Unionist  political  lead- 
ers would  not  accept  the  scheme.  On  the  other  hand 
the  Nationalist  leaders  were  not  willing  that  even  a 
part  of  Ulster  should  be  left  out  of  a  self-governing 
Ireland.  They  feared  that  the  exclusion  of  even  a 
small  part  of  Ireland  from  the  new  government  would 
entail  the  failure  of  Home  Rule,  since  that  part  was 
so  wealthy  and  important.  The  best  of  the  Nation- 
alists, while  they  were  willing  to  admit  of  no  com- 


ULSTER  309 

promise  about  leaving  out  Ulster,  declared  not  only 
that  Ulster  had  no  just  cause  for  fear,  but  asserted 
that  they  would  do  all  that  could  be  done  to  reassure 
her,  if  that  could  be  honorably  accomplished.  They 
not  only  gave  their  word  as  to  this,  and  so  spoke  for 
their  constituents,  but  expressed  the  desire  that  Home 
Rule  be  accompanied  by  amplest  safeguards  for  the 
people  of  the  north.  Mr.  Redmond  stated  this  best. 
He  said  he  did  not  wish  self-government  to  come  as  a 
bitter  defeat  for  an  honest  and  intelligent  section  of 
his  countrymen:  "I  want  to  influence  their  intelli- 
gence, I  want  to  dissipate  their  suspicions,  I  want  to 
soften  their  hearts." 

Such  was  the  Ulster  question;  such  were  the  argu- 
ments employed  in  its  discussion.  I  have  gone  into 
them  at  more  length  than  some  may  think  they  de- 
serve, in  order  to  show  that  the  Home  Rule  problem 
was  not  so  simple  as  often  it  has  seemed  to  laymen  on 
this  side  of  the  ocean.  Americans  have  no  intimate 
knowledge  of  such  difficulties  now.  Once  our  fathers 
knew  them  in  the  days  of  slavery,  state  rights,  and 
secession;  and,  farther  back,  our  ancestors  before  the 
Union  was  formed.  But  the  men  and  women  of  this 
generation  in  America  are  scarcely  able  to  conceive 
them;  and  looking  to  England,  knowing  how  long 
self-government  has  prevailed  in  English  constitu- 
tional practice,  and  how  in  recent  times  it  has  been  so 
generously  extended  to  colonies  and  dominions,  they 
think  it  axranomai}  for  Home  Rule  to  be  so  ardently 
desired  in  Ireland,  yet  so  bitterly  contested  and  down 


310          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

to  the  present  withheld.  Often,  knowing  little  of 
England  exactly,  they  have  believed  this  to  result 
from  blind  perverseness  and  characteristic  stubborn- 
ness, perpetuating  an  olden  tragedy  into  modern 
times.  In  the  Irish  question  there  has  been  much 
wrong,  and  mistakes  have  not  been  wanting,  on  both 
sides,  in  recent  times.  But  an  examination  of  the 
fugitive  and  controversial  literature  and  the  debates 
in  parliament  and  before  the  people  makes  it  evident 
that  there  was  much  to  be  said  on  both  sides.  We  in 
this  country  have  been  more  apt  to  sympathize  with 
the  Irish,  and  perhaps  that  is  as  it  should  be;  but 
certainly  there  were  a  great  many  people  who  hon- 
estly believed  that  Home  Rule  was  not  only  unneces- 
sary for  the  interests  of  Ireland,  and  perhaps  even 
detrimental  to  the  true  interests  of  the  Irish  people, 
but  that  certainly,  whatever  might  be  the  results  to 
that  country,  without  doubt  self-government,  so  far  as 
it  tended  toward  separation  and  the  erecting  of  an 
independent  or  hostile  government,  would  be  fatal  to 
the  fundamental  interests  of  England  and  the  British 
Empire.  And  yet  it  must  always  be  remembered  that 
just  before  the  war  the  English  Liberals  working  with 
the  Irish  Nationalists  had  at  last  agreed  to  give  Ire- 
land Home  Rule,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties  in- 
volved. Still,  however,  there  remained  the  fact  that 
an  important  part  of  Ireland  was  entirely  unrecon- 
ciled to  the  scheme,  and  willing  to  take  up  arms  to 
maintain  its  connection  with  Great  Britain.  What 
would  have  come  of  this,  or  what  will  come  in  the  fu^ 


ULSTER  311 

ture,  remains  as  yet  uncertain;  for  with  the  beginning 
of  the  great  war  in  Europe  the  Irish  question  was  kept 
for  a  while  in  abeyance ;  and  when  it  reappeared  as  an 
issue,  new  baffling  problems  came  with  it. 


PART  III 
IRISH  NATIONALITY  AND  THE  WAR 


CHAPTER  I 

IRISH   LANGUAGE   AND   LITERATURE   AND   THE 
IRISH    REVIVAL 

This  heritage  to  the  race  of  Kings : 

Their  children  and  their  children's  seed 

Have  wrought  their  prophecies  in  deed 
Of  terrible  and  splendid  things. 

The  hands  that  fought,  the  hearts  that  broke 

In  old  immortal  tragedies, 
These  have  not  failed  beneath  the  skies, 

Their  children's  heads  refuse  the  yoke. 

Joseph  Mar}'  Plunkett:  "Our  Heritage." 

You  cannot  make  a  nation  of  half-and-halfs,  you  can  only 
have  a  province  where  people  are  half  Irish  and  half  Eng- 
lish. Make  them  wholly  Irish — in  speech,  in  thought,  in 
mental  direction,  and  then  you  will  make  a  nation  that  will 
have  a  worthy  civilization. 

Padraic    Colum,   "Sinn    Fein    and    Irish    Ireland," 
in  The  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916,  p.  38, 

IF  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a 
new  age  in  the  relations  between  Ireland  and 
England,  with  some  excellent  measures  tending  to 
make  Ireland  content  and  draw  the  two  peoples 
closer  together  in  real  union,  the  latest  generation 
has  nevertheless  been  an  era  in  which  gradually  arose 
something  else  that  despite  best  intentions,  perhaps, 

315 


316    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

on  both  sides,  has  tended  at  last  to  divide  them  so  that 
they  never  seemed  farther  apart.  That  which  cre- 
ated so  great  a  barrier  and  such  untold  possibilities 
for  the  future,  is  the  revival  of  Irish  nationality,  the 
revival  of  something  old  and  fine,  but  long  submerged 
and  often  forgot  by  most  men,  something  splendid 
and  good,  which  the  world  much  desires  to  have  again, 
but  withal,  at  this  moment,  so  fierce,  so  blind,  and  un- 
reasoning, as  to  seem  big  with  mischief  and  woe. 
From  many  things  did  this  Irish  revival  begin:  the 
spirit  of  a  strange  and  wondrous  time,  the  stirring 
of  a  world-upheaval,  justifiable  discontent  and  im- 
patience, and  laudable  desire  for  self-expression;  but 
it  came  also  from  a  return  in  spirit  to  the  old  Irish 
past,  and  the  wish  to  make  live  again  all  that  was 
great  and  good  in  that  past;  and  this  was  brought 
about  largely  through  revival  of  the  use  of  the  Irish 
speech  and  study  of  the  literature  of  old  Ireland. 

Gaelic,  the  language  of  the  Irish,  has  not  usually 
been  known  to  those  who  speak  English,  except  as  the 
Irish  themselves  took  up  English.  The  Danish, 
Norman,  English  invaders,  who  settled  in  Ireland 
permanently,  often  gave  up  the  language  which  they 
brought,  as  they  were  absorbed  into  the  native  popu- 
lation; but  to  those  who  came  merely  to  rule  for  a 
while,  and  to  most  of  the  people  who  lived  in  the 
greater  island,  Gaelic  ever  seemed  an  uncouth 
tongue,  which  would  disappear  in  the  goodness  of 
more  civilized  times.  There  were  exceptions,  to  be 
sure.  Queen  Elizabeth  had  some  interest,  and  oc- 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  317 

casionally  there  were  others ;  but  generally  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Britain  were  as  little  informed  of  the  Irish 
language  and  cared  as  little  about  it,  as  they  did  about 
the  strange  tongues  which  travellers  told  of  in  farther 
Asia  or  along  the  African  coast.  In  course  of  time 
a  little  was  popularly  known  about  the  Celtic  lan- 
guages in  Brittany,  in  Wales,  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  in 
the  Scottish  Highlands,  and  in  Ireland,  through  such 
writings  as  the  publications  of  Macpherson  and  some 
of  the  novels  of  Scott;  but  for  the  most  part  out- 
side of  Celtic  countries  the  languages  were  only 
known  to  a  few  scholars.  It  was  not,  indeed,  for  a 
long  while  that  scholars  understood  the  character  and 
relations  of  this  group.  The  V ' ergleichende  Gram- 
matik  of  the  great  German  philologist  Bopp,  which 
first  appeared  in  1833,  did  not  admit  Celtic  into  the 
Indo-European  group,  though  the  work  of  the  Eng- 
lishman Pritchard  a  little  before  this  time  and  that 
of  the  Swiss  philologist  Pictet  somewhat  later  caused 
him  to  recognize  it  as  a  relation  of  the  Germanic,  the 
Graeco-Italic,  and  the  Sanscrit;  and  later  still  the 
Bavarian  scholar  Zeuss  demonstrated  the  relation- 
ship conclusively  in  his  Grammatica  Celtica,  pub- 
lished in  1853. 

Meanwhile  the  Celtic  speech  was  gradually  being 
abandoned  by  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland.  In 
the  seventeenth  century  it  was  the  language  of  a  sub- 
ject race  held  as  inferiors  and  debarred  from  any  of 
the  honors  and  emoluments  of  state.  Those  who 
spoke  it  were  often  regarded  as  barbarians  and 


318    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

usually  treated  as  serfs.  The  Irish  Celts  were  sub- 
jected to  all  sorts  of  persecution  and  disability,  from 
which  they  could  escape  most  easily  by  abandoning 
all  that  was  Celtic.  In  Ireland  in  the  eighteenth 
century  there  could  be  little  opportunity  for  anyone 
who  used  the  Gaelic  tongue  and  professed  the  Cath- 
olic faith.  The  old  Irish  schools  disappeared.  Irish 
learning  and  literature  were  frowned  on  by  the  gov- 
ernment and  scantily  supported  by  the  impoverished 
natives.  More  and  more  did  Irishmen  learn  the  Eng- 
lish language,  to  which  they  gave  a  delightful  and 
peculiar  pronunciation  of  their  own,  and  forget  the 
speech  of  their  fathers.  Celtic  remained  the  only 
language  of  a  great  number  of  people  in  Ireland, 
and  continued  to  be  used  and  understood  by  many 
more,  but  after  two  centuries  this  was  so  rather 
among  the  lowest,  the  poorest,  and  most  ignorant  of 
the  people,  and  in  the  wilder  and  more  remote  parts 
of  the  islands.  As  early  as  1738  it  was  said  that  only 
one  out  of  twenty  people  did  not  know  the  English 
language.  Yet  Irish  survived  the  persecution  and 
depression  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  continued  to 
be  used  and  understood  by  a  large  part  of  the  popula- 
tion, until  the  great  famine,  when  it  received,  what 
seemed  then,  its  death-blow.  The  hunger  and  the 
fever  found  most  of  their  victims  in  the  districts 
where  Gaelic  was  the  only  speech  or  where  it  was  used 
along  with  the  English,  and  it  was  from  these  same 
districts  also  that  the  great  emigrations  went  forth  in 
the  following  years.  In  1835  a  traveller  believed  that 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  319 

four  millions  out  of  seven  in  Ireland  still  kept  Irish 
as  their  mother  tongue ;  but  the  next  census  after  the 
famine  gave  only  1,204,684  as  the  number  of  those 
who  used  English  and  Gaelic  and  319,602  as  speaking 
Gaelic  alone.  By  1901  the  official  figures  were  620, 
189  for  those  who  used  both  languages  and  20,953 
for  those  who  only  spoke  Gaelic. 

Accordingly,  it  seemed  that  what  Cromwell  and 
the  planters  had  once  attempted,  the  removal  of 
things  Irish  from  Ireland,  was  on  the  way  to  being 
achieved  in  other  fashion.  Wherever  Irishmen  were 
they  were  giving  up  the  old  speech  and  taking  the 
English  instead.  Critics  declared  that  Gaelic  in  Ire- 
land was  dying  of  internal  decay,  and  others  believed 
that  with  the  adoption  generally  by  Irishmen  of  the 
English  speech,  there  would  in  time  be  a  desirable  ap- 
proximation of  character  and  ideals  in  the  two  islands, 
so  that  with  the  proceeding  economic  betterment  in 
the  end  there  would  be  general  acquiescence  in  the 
Union  in  the  midst  of  contentment  and  peace.  So  it 
seemed  that  after  a  while  the  Celtic  of  Ireland  would 
be  one  of  the  dead  languages,  as  the  Celtic  of  Strath- 
clyde  had  become  long  ago,  and  the  Celtic  of  Corn- 
wall not  long  before ;  not  like  the  Greek,  to  be  studied 
and  read  for  ages  by  innumerable  students  because 
of  supreme  beauty  and  the  treasure  of  its  content,  nor 
like  the  Latin  because  of  its  enduring  influence  upon 
men,  but  a  language  bright  with  old  treasures  and 
dear  once,  with  a  savor  and  sweetness  of  its  own, 
nevertheless  gone  now  like  other  things  before  it,  dead 


320    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

and  buried  in  libraries  and  old  books,  dimly  and 
faintly  remembered  by  some  who  chanced  to  think  of 
it,  but  actually  known  only  to  philologists  and  erudite 
men. 

Such  consummation  seemed  lamentable  to  those 
who  thought  of  the  glory  and  beauty  of  old  Irish 
things  and  cherished  whatever  was  left  of  them. 
Particularly  was  it  dreaded  by  them  who  wished  Irish 
character  to  be  strengthened  and  preserved.  The 
most  potent  and  general  means  of  expressing  and  re- 
taining national  character  is  language  spoken  and 
written.  If  a  people  develops  the  ability  of  literary 
expression  at  all,  in  its  literature,  perhaps,  is  to  be 
found  that  which  best  reveals  what  is  most  distinctive 
in  its  character  and  makes  its  character  individual 
and  peculiar;  and  through  the  body  of  its  literature 
and  traditions  it  will  most  affect  its  later  generations. 
The  greatest  thing  of  the  nineteenth  century,  said 
Bismarck,  was  that  English  was  the  language  of  most 
of  North  America;  and  doubtless  because  this  was  so 
did  the  people  of  the  United  States  for  the  most  part 
instinctively  turn  to  England  and  the  Allies  in  the 
earlier  months  of  the  war.  Character  and  spirit  of  a 
people,  expressing  themselves  in  the  language  of  the 
people,  express  something  that  cannot  be  given  in 
another  language,  and  only  in  part  through  transla- 
tion. Accordingly,  if  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland 
gave  up  entirely  the  old  Celtic  speech  and  adopted 
the  English,  they  might  use  it  not  as  the  inhabitants 
of  England  did,  but  with  differences  of  character  and 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  321 

expression  all  their  own,  as  was  so  with  the  Scots  or 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  but  their  speech  and 
their  literature  would  not  give  out  what  the  Gaelic 
words  had  used  to  do,  the  people  would  more  and 
more  be  cut  off  from  communion  with  the  old  Irish 
past,  and  after  a  while  the  character  and  ideals  of  this 
Anglian  Ireland  would  be  much  unlike  what  a  Celtic 
Ireland  would  have  given  to  its  children. 

Formerly,  I  think,  when  English-speaking  people 
thought  of  the  literature  of  Ireland,  they  were  most 
apt  to  have  in  mind  that  which  had  been  written  in 
English.  Among  the  settlers  and  conquerors,  in- 
deed, and  those  who  used  their  language,  were  some 
whose  writings  have  brought  glory  to  Ireland  and 
who  have  taken  high  place  in  the  company  of  Eng- 
lish letters.  It  was  in  Ireland  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury that  some  of  the  finest  writing  of  Swift  was  done, 
that  ultimate  master  of  the  strong  and  terrible  among 
all  the  prose  writers  of  English.  Steele,  who  sur- 
passed Addison,  his  colleague,  was  born  in  Dublin, 
but  wrote  his  essays  and  comedies  in  England. 
Berkeley,  so  important  in  the  annals  of  philosophic 
composition,  was  bishop  of  Cloyne.  From  Ireland 
came  Oliver  Goldsmith;  and  even  yet  we  contrast 
Irish  and  English  character  as  we  follow  his  conver- 
sations with  Dr.  Johnson  in  Boswell.  Both  Sheridan 
and  Moore  were  born  in  Dublin,  as  was  Edmund 
Burke,  whose  stately  volumes  of  magnificent  prose 
contain  more  political  wisdom  than  the  work  of  any 
other  who  has  written  in  our  language. 


322          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

The  glories  of  the  eighteenth  century  faded  in  the 
nineteenth.  In  Anglo-Irish  literature  there  was  no 
novelist  to  be  in  the  company  of  Scott,  or  Thackeray, 
or  Dickens,  until  at  the  end  of  the  century  came 
George  Moore,  whose  Mummer's  Wife  and  Esther 
Waters  remain  the  masterpieces  of  realistic  fiction  in 
English.  After  the  Irish  Melodies  of  Moore  poetry 
declined,  and  Ireland  brought  forth  no  Byron  or 
Browning  or  Tennyson  or  Swinburne.  Nor  was 
there  during  this  time  much  in  Irish  prose  to  be  named 
beside  the  splendid  array  across  the  sea,  though  some 
remember  the  Jail  Journal  of  Mitchel,  and  the  his- 
torical writings  of  Lecky  continue  to  be  read  almost 
as  much  as  Macaulay's.  One  genius  there  was  in  the 
drama:  Oscar  Wilde,  who  more  than  Poe  has  been 
under  a  moral  stigma  which  obscures  from  the  un- 
discerning  the  sparkle  of  a  dialogue  only  equalled  by 
the  best  comic  writing  of  France  and  not  seen  in  Eng- 
land after  the  time  of  the  drama  of  the  Restoration. 

But  there  is  an  older  literature  in  Ireland,  which 
once  rose  to  splendor  and  glory,  had  its  long  day  of 
triumph,  failed  and  withered  with  the  hopes  of  its 
people,  then  for  many  a  year  lay  neglected,  and 
cherished  only  by  refugees,  or  peasants  in  Connaught. 
The  Celtic  literature  of  Ireland  had  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century  so  far  perished  that  only  a 
little  of  it  was  kept  by  a  few  who  held  to  the  Gaelic 
language,  and  it  was  studied  only  by  philologists  and 
scholars. 

Much  no  doubt  has  perished,  but  there  is  still  a 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  323 

great  mass  of  Irish  literature  written  in  Celtic.  Not 
to  speak  of  the  ogham  writing  on  wood  and  on  stone, 
which  has  much  antiquarian  but  small  literary  value, 
there  are  from  the  old  Irish  period  of  the  language, 
700-1100,  a  few  prose  writings  and  poems,  of  the 
eighth  or  ninth  centuries  or  earlier,  mostly  of  as  little 
literary  excellence  as  the  writing  done  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons  at  the  same  time.  More  important 
are  the  numerous  glosses  or  marginal  notes  and  ex- 
planations scattered  about  in  religious  writings. 
Few  of  the  earliest  manuscripts  remain  in  Ireland. 
It  would  appear  that  the  scholars  who  wrote  or  pre- 
served them  took  them  away  in  the  days  of  the  Danish 
invasions,  and  nowadays  they  are  to  be  found  more 
often,  in  libraries  of  continental  Europe. 

Most  of  the  Celtic  literature  of  Ireland  comes 
from  the  so-called  middle  period  of  the  language, 
1100-1550.  The  earlier  originals  of  most  of  the 
pieces  are  lost,  and  the  copies,  as  we  now  have  them, 
are  preserved  in  codices  or  collections  whose  quaint 
names  are  very  celebrated  in  literary  annals.  The 
Book  of  the  Dun  Cow,  part  of  it  done  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twelfth  century,  contains  one  version 
of  the  epic,  Tain  Bo  Cuailnge,  the  Iliad  of  Ireland. 
The  Book  of  Ballymote,  the  most  extensive  of  these 
collections,  contains  much  historical  matter,  compiled 
about  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century;  and  the 
Speckled  Book,  largely  religious,  was  done  somewhat 
later.  Among  many  others  of  this  period  are  the 
Book  of  Leinster,  the  Book  of  Lismore,  the  Book  of 


324    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Armagh.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  contents  of 
some  of  the  more  important  manuscripts  of  this  period 
would  fill  over  18,000  printed  quarto  pages.  It  is 
obvious  from  the  manner  in  which  these  manuscripts 
were  written  or  compiled,  that  in  this  middle  Irish 
period  there  is  much  writing  that  has  come  with  little 
change  from  the  old  Irish  period  preceding. 

Of  greatest  interest  are  the  medieval  romances, 
stories  almost  purely  Irish,  since  little  of  them  is  to 
be  found  in  any  form  in  the  literature  of  other  Celtic 
countries.  The  more  ancient  group  of  them,  Ire- 
land's principal  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the 
world,  arose  in  Ulster,  and  dealing  with  that  part  of 
the  island,  are  known  as  the  Ulster  Cycle.  They  pur- 
port to  relate  to  the  time  of  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era.  Containing  much  that  appears  fab- 
ulous and  imaginary,  they  are  of  slight  value  for  an 
account  of  early  events,  but  they  seem  to  present  a 
very  true  picture  of  the  early  conditions  which  were 
known  or  remembered  at  the  time  when  they  were 
composed,  and  it  is  from  them  as  well  as  from  the 
Brehon  Laws  that  early  Irish  society  is  known  to  us. 

The  great  epic  of  the  Ulster  Cycle  is  the  Tain  Bo 
Cuailnge,  the  Cattle  Raid  of  Cooley.  In  early  Irish 
society,  as  with  other  peoples,  the  principal  wealth 
was  in  cattle,  and  the  stories  of  the  period  have  to  do 
largely  with  tains,  or  cattle-drives,  between  Ulster 
and  the  parts  of  Erin  nearby.  This  is  the  story  of 
Fergus,  once  king  of  Ulster,  now  an  exile  in  Con- 
naught,  of  Conchobar,  now  Ulster's  king,  of  Ailill 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  325 

and  Medb,  king  and  queen  of  Connaught,  and  above 
all  of  Ciichulain,  heroic  champion  of  Ulster.  Queen 
Medb  possessed  a  wondrous  bull,  and  coveted  an- 
other in  Ulster.  So  she  assembled  her  host.  Ulster 
was  defended  by  the  hero  Ciichulain,  with  whose  his- 
tory and  mighty  exploits  the  epic  is  chiefly  concerned, 
until  it  closes  with  the  rout  of  the  army  of  Medb  and 
the  combat  and  death  of  the  bulls. 

It  is  an  old  world  of  barbaric  splendor  that  is  re- 
vealed in  this  and  other  tales  of  the  Ulster  Cycle. 
The  great  warriors  go  to  battle  in  chariots.  Often 
they  bear  themselves  in  right  knightly  way  and  do 
acts  of  chivalrous  kindness;  but  they  go  forth  with 
savage  war-dogs,  and  when  they  triumph  they  bear 
off  the  heads  of  conquered  foemen  slung  at  their 
belts  or  round  the  necks  of  their  horses  or  to  be  kept 
in  a  hall  of  the  palace.  Often  the  women  are  the 
counsellors  and  equals  of  the  men.  Far  inferior  in 
literary  workmanship  to  the  Iliad,  the  things  in  these 
tales  often  remind  one  of  the  world  of  Homer. 

However  the  Iliad  in  the  form  we  now  have  it  may 
have  been  composed,  it  is  generally  believed  to  mark 
the  end  of  a  long  course  of  development  of  Greek 
epic  writing,  the  earlier  memorials  of  this  develop- 
ment having  perished.  But  the  Tain  and  other 
stories  of  the  group  represent  the  earlier  and  inter- 
mediate stages  of  epic  composition,  not  the  last  and 
most  perfect,  which  in  Ireland  were  never  achieved. 
These  old  romances  are  mainly  in  prose,  with  some 
poems  interspersed.  They  are  often  characterized 


326    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

by  great  dramatic  force,  by  brilliancy,  and  keen  hu- 
mor; but  excellent  though  they  be,  they  are  also 
marred  by  striking  defects :  they  indulge  in  grotesque 
exaggeration,  abound  in  minute  description  and 
wearisome  repetition,  they  lack  proportion,  and  are 
sometimes  of  intolerable  length. 

There  are  many  Tains  in  this  cycle,  and  numerous 
other  tales  of  war  and  adventure.  The  story  which 
is  now  known  better  even  than  the  story  of  Cuchulain 
is  that  one  of  the  so-called  Three  Sorrows  of  Story- 
telling, the  Aided  Chloinne  Uisnig,  Death  of  the  Sons 
of  Usnech,  better  known  in  modern  versions  as  the 
story  of  Deirdre.  This  is  the  tale  of  how  King  Conor 
of  Ulster  brought  up  as  his  future  wife  the  beautiful 
child  Deirdre,  fated,  said  the  portents,  to  cause  deso- 
lation and  woe.  Long  secluded,  she  chanced  once  to 
see  Naisi,  son  of  Usnech,  loved  him  and  went  with 
him  to  Alban  or  Scotland.  Afterward  returning 
they  were  betrayed  to  their  death.  This  tale  became 
one  of  the  great  love-stories  of  the  world.  Later 
versions  said  the  lovers  could  not  be  separated  in 
death,  that  laid  apart  in  the  burial-ground  their 
bodies  were  found  side  by  side  each  morning,  and  that 
when  stakes  were  thrust  through  the  bodies  in  sepa- 
rate graves,  trees  grew  from  them  which  embraced 
at  last  over  the  Cathedral  of  Armagh.  In  the  nine- 
teenth century  this  story  was  put  into  English  by  Sir 
Samuel  Ferguson  and  others,  and  later  it  furnished 
the  theme  for  plays  by  Yeats  and  by  Synge  in  the 
Irish  Literary  Revival. 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  327 

For  southern  Ireland,  there  is  the  Fenian  or  Os- 
sianic  Cycle,  a  group  of  romances,  some  in  prose, 
some  ballads,  in  verse,  about  the  deeds  of  Fion  and 
Oisin  and  others.  The  stories  which  they  relate  do 
not  occur  frequently  in  the  older  manuscripts  which 
contain  the  epics  of  the  Ulster  Cycle,  and  the  period 
to  which  they  relate  is  a  later  one  in  which  the  north 
country  has  lost  its  conspicuous  importance.  Some 
of  the  stories,  indeed,  are  very  old,  with  origin  lost  in 
obscurity;  but  while  the  tales  of  the  northern  cycle 
have  to  do  with  the  deeds  of  kings  and  heroes  of  the 
upper  classes,  the  Fenian  Cycle  is  concerned  largely 
with  an  ancient  military  caste  of  professional  war- 
riors, the  fianna,,  and  also  with  the  people ;  and  one  of 
the  theories  about  their  origin  is  that  they  arose 
among  the  subject  race  which  had  once  been  con- 
quered by  the  Celts.  The  earliest  manuscripts  of  any 
length  dealing  with  this  group  of  tales  date  from  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  stories  are  about  the  exploits 
of  the  fianna,  typified  in  the  doings  of  Fion  and  Oisin, 
and  have  to  do  with  war,  especially  the  chase,  and  tell 
many  a  tale  of  fairies  and  phantoms  and  strange 
things  of  olden  days.  It  is  not  improbable  that  an 
organized  force  of  professional  or  mercenary  soldiers 
may  have  existed  in  these  times,  though  generally,  it  is 
well  known,  the  military  organization  was  by  tribes 
and  clans ;  but  whether  the  heroes  named  ever  actually 
existed  is  lost  altogether  in  the  obscurity  of  a  time 
passed  away. 

In  style  the  longer  prose  romances  in  this  cycle  are 


328    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

far  inferior  to  those  of  the  Ulster  group,  though  the 
ballads  are  excellent.  In  the  prose  narratives,  how- 
ever, are  found  many  charming  lyric  poems,  hunting- 
songs,  and  lullabies.  The  stories  of  the  Ossianic 
Cycle  were  for  a  while  best  known  to  the  English- 
speaking  world  not  through  acquaintance  with  the 
Celtic  romances  of  Ireland  or  even  translations  of 
them,  but  through  the  celebrated  compositions  or 
forgeries  of  James  Macpherson,  a  Scotchman,  who 
published  in  1762  and  1763  the  Ossianic  Poems, 
Fingal  and  Temora,  which  were  not,  as  he  said,  Gaelic 
epics  rendered  by  him  into  English,  but  compositions 
of  his  own  with  all  the  polish  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, based  upon  Highland  ballads  closely  related  to 
those  long  current  in  Erin.  But  far  different  was 
it  with  Irishmen.  The  exploits  of  Fion  and  Diar- 
muid  were  many  a  time  told  and  retold.  For  a  great 
while  the  tradition  endured  that  in  an  ancient  fortress 
in  Donegal  a  thousand  men  sat,  hand  upon  sword, 
resting  in  magic  sleep;  that  often  they  stirred  them- 
selves— "Is  the  time  yet  come?" — that  when  the  deep 
answer  echoed:  "The  time  is  not  yet,"  they  sank  back 
again  into  slumber  profound ;  but  one  day  would  come 
forth  for  the  freedom  of  their  country. 

In  the  oldest  and  also  in  the  later  compositions 
there  are  pieces  which  relate  to  the  ancient  mythology 
of  the  island,  and  throw  much  light  on  the  early  re- 
ligion of  the  Irish  Celts.  From  very  old  times  on 
there  are  many  poems  about  the  beauty  and  charm  of 
nature. 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  329 

Generally  of  less  literary  value,  but  of  greater  im- 
portance, perhaps,  for  creating  and  sustaining  Irish 
nationality,  are  the  numerous  genealogies,  annals,  and 
histories,  of  which  many  early  ones  have  been  lost,  but 
of  which  a  great  many  have  been  preserved  in  some 
form  and  come  down.  In  medieval  England,  where 
learning  was  altogether  in  the  hands  of  churchmen 
and  monks,  most  of  the  chronicles  and  contemporary 
accounts  are  in  Latin,  not  early  English,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle  being  a  notable  exception.  In  Ire- 
land, where  learning  and  writing  were  not  monopo- 
lized by  ecclesiastics,  but  were  for  a  long  while  very 
largely  held  by  professional  and  hereditary  learned 
castes,  the  fill  and  afterwards  the  bards,  such  writing 
was  usually  in  Gaelic,  and  the  remains  of  this  writing 
now  constitute  a  magnificent  memorial  of  the  old 
language  of  Ireland. 

No  people  ever  more  desired  to  remember  their 
past,  and  it  has  justly  been  said  -that  Ireland  has 
been  a  country  of  annalists.  To  traditional  fili  of 
early  times  are  ascribed  a  number  of  poems,  some  of 
them  in  existing  form  undoubtedly  of  later  date, 
which  tell  the  story  of  far  off  events  in  Ireland.  In 
the  tenth  century  Eochaid  O'Flainn  wrote  a  poem 
giving  a  chronological  account  of  kings  of  Ulster. 
About  the  same  time  MacLiac  told  in  his  verse  of  the 
greatness  of  Brian  Boru,  to  whom  he  was  chief  secre- 
tary and  poet.  His  lament  on  the  fall  of  Kincora, 
the  palace  of  his  master,  was  long  remembered,  and  it 
was  recalled,  perhaps,  afterwards  by  Moore,  and  by 


330    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Lady  Gregory  not  long  ago.  In  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury Flann  Mainistreach  compiled  synchronisms  of 
the  kings  and  historical  poems.  And  in  the  centuries 
following,  the  chief  members  of  the  bardic  families 
continued  to  write  eulogies  and  poems  about  their 
chieftains  and  tribes. 

Very  important  for  the  student  are  the  annals, 
compiled  often  by  contemporaries,  by  the  professional 
annalists  and  genealogists  of  the  tribes.  There  still 
exist  from  the  eleventh  century  fragments  of  the 
Annals  of  Tigernacli,  done  by  an  ecclesiastic  who 
wrote  of  Irish  affairs  in  his  native  language  and  of 
foreign  matters  in  Latin.  From  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury or  earlier  come  the  Annals  of  Innis fallen,  also 
in  the  two  languages.  The  Annals  of  Loch  Ce  deal 
with  Irish  history  from  the  eleventh  to  the  seventeenth 
century.  Among  others  are  the  Annals  of  Ulster, 
thus  named  because  largely  they  deal  with  the  north, 
the  Annals  of  Connacht,  and  the  Annals  of  Clonmac- 
noise  remaining  now  only  in  English  translation. 
Such  narratives  invariably  give  an  account  of  the  his- 
tory of  years  kmg  before  the  time  when  they  were 
actually  written,  so  that  it  is  only  the  later  portions 
that  have  a  contemporary  value,  though  it  should  be 
noted  that  the  contemporary  work  does  in  many 
places  extend  back  beyond  the  time  of  the  compilation 
in  the  form  now  existing.  Greatest  of  all  the  works 
of  the  chroniclers  is  that  which  is  known  as  the  Annals 
of  the  Four  Masters,  compiled  in  the  modern  period 
of  Irish  literature  and  writing  in  the  first  half  of  the 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  331 

seventeenth  century,  by  Michael  O'Clery,  two  more 
of  the  family  O'Clery,  and  another.  The  English 
conquest  was  being  completed  now  with  the  deg- 
radation of  Irishmen  and  the  ruin  of  their  old  civil- 
ization. The  manuscripts  which  had  been  so  num- 
erous in  earlier  times  were  being  lost  or  dispersed  or 
carried  to  foreign  lands.  It  was  the  ambition  of 
O'Clery  and  his  comrades  to  do  what  others  had  tried 
to  do  before  his  time,  collect  together  as  many  of  the 
old  accounts  and  as  much  of  the  old  information  as 
possible,  before  they  should  be  irretrievably  lost. 
And  well  it  is  for  the  scholar  now  that  the  work  was 
done,  for  almost  all  of  the  materials  used  by  the  Four 
Masters  have  disappeared  since  their  day.  Their 
compilation,  which  was  made  in  the  years  1632-1636, 
gives  an  account  of  Irish  history  from  the  coming  of 
a  granddaughter  of  Noah  to  1616.  The  Masters 
have  arranged  in  chronological  order  the  materials 
which  they  were  able  to  collect,  whereas  out  of  similar 
sources  Keating  wrote  a  historical  narrative  of  his 
own. 

There  are  many  historical  writings.  The  Cog  ad 
Gaedel  re  Gallaib,  Wars  of  the  Gael  and  the  Gall, 
tells  the  story  of  the  Norse  invasions  and  gives  an  ac- 
count of  the  battle  of  Clontarf.  A  portion  of  it  is 
ascribed  to  MacLiac,  and  the  part  about  the  battle  is 
apparently  by  one  who  lived  then.  The  greatest  of 
all  the  Irish  historians,  one  who  came  in  the  modern 
period,  was  Seathrun  Ceitinn  (1570  -  c.  1646),  better 
known  as  Geoffrey  Keating,  and  one  of  the  best 


332          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

known  names  in  all  Irish  literature.  Living  in  the 
era  of  the  plantations,  sometimes  hiding  from  the 
English  authorities,  he  planned  to  write  a  history  of 
Ireland,  and  afterwards  travelled  up  and  down  col- 
lecting materials  for  his  work.  He  was  generally 
welcomed  and  trusted,  and  was  allowed  to  use  an 
enormous  number  of  manuscripts  and  books.  His 
history,  the  Forus  Feasa  ar  Eirinn,  was  written  1629- 
1634.  With  some  defects,  largely  because  of  lack  of 
critical  spirit,  it  remains  nevertheless  a  source  of  first 
importance,  since  the  author  had  access  to  many 
pieces  of  information  now  lost  except  as  they  are  pre- 
served in  his  writing.  Keating,  as  the  work  is  cited 
nowadays,  was  never  published  until  recently,  but  in 
numerous  manscript  copies  it  long  circulated  through 
Ireland  and  remains  the  monument  and  classic  model 
of  Irish  prose. 

Mention  must  also  be  made  of  another  body  of 
writing,  which  though  possessing  little  direct  literary 
value,  is  not  only  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
scholars  learned  in  old  Irish  things  but  represents  a 
great  deal  of  the  character  and  spirit  of  times  past. 
The  ancient  tribal  customary  law  of  the  Gaelic  in- 
habitants, known  as  the  Brehon  Laws,  was  at  first 
transmitted  from  teacher  to  pupil  in  verse  to  be  mem- 
orized, but  after  a  while  was  codified  in  writing,  in 
the  time  of  St.  Patrick,  according  to  legend,  though 
little  of  the  text  as  we  have  it  now  goes  back  farther 
than  the  eighth  century.  The  collection  of  the  An- 
cient Laws  of  Ireland,  Senchus  Mor,  was  published 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  333 

in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  these  records  of  Celtic 
custom  have  greatly  assisted  students  of  Irish  history 
and  many  who  deal  with  primitive  and  comparative 
law,  like  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  Frederick  Seebohm. 
The  conquest  and  confiscations  of  the  seventeenth 
century  brought  such  depression  and  despair  as  to 
make  almost  impossible  any  further  great  develop- 
ment of  the  native  Irish  literature  and  writing.  The 
best  men  went  abroad,  and  those  who  stayed  in  Ire- 
land were  bowed  too  low  to  have  much  heart  or 
strength  for  such  things.  English  was  now  the  of- 
ficial language,  the  speech  of  the  colonists,  who  were 
the  upper  classes,  and  of  all  who  supported  the  gov- 
ernment or  knelt  down  before  it.  The  old  Irish 
schools  and  places  of  learning  had  nearly  disappeared, 
and  children  of  the  natives  sought,  when  they  could, 
an  education  abroad,  in  Rome  or  in  Paris.  By  these 
exiles  some  writing  was  done,  particularly  the  trans- 
lating from  Irish  into  Latin  of  books  of  devotion.  In 
Ireland  itself  nothing  of  magnitude  or  importance 
was  done  in  Gaelic  after  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  old  literary  treasures  of  the 
Irish  were  despised  or  little  known  by  the  conquerors, 
and,  indeed,  were  in  danger  of  disappearing  alto- 
gether. One  of  the  finest  and  most  pathetic  things 
in  Irish  history  is  the  devotion  with  which  Irishmen, 
often  in  the  midst  of  incredible  and  disheartening  toil, 
made  it  a  labor  of  love  to  copy  over  the  manuscripts 
of  the  past,  and  preserve  them  for  a  future  which 
might  never  come.  Often,  as  I  have  said  above,  the 


334    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

old  histories  and  writings  did  perish,  but  many  of 
them  have  been  preserved,  and  more  were  for  a  great 
while  kept  alive  in  the  memories  of  the  peasants  and 
handed  down  from  one  generation  to  another. 

Even  when  fortune  was  so  low,  however,  there  was 
a  great  deal  of  writing  of  poems.  The  conditions  of 
the  time  caused  the  decline  and  destruction  of  the  pro- 
fessional literary  classes,  who  had  before  been  the 
creators  of  Irish  literature.  There  occurred  one  last 
great  outburst  of  bardic  composition  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Then,  in  the  midst  of  the  mis- 
fortunes of  their  country  the  bards  turned  to  the 
common  people,  and  wrote  more  simply,  more  nat- 
urally, and  more  freely,  abandoning  the  extremely 
complicated  meters  and  the  great  obscurity  which  had 
formerly  characterized  Irish  poetical  writing  when 
patronized  by  the  upper  classes.  During  the 
eighteenth  century  Irish  verse  expresses  the  sorrow 
and  longing  of  the  people,  and  small  pieces  were 
composed  without  number.  Even  this  gradually 
dwindled  and  shrunk  away,  and  at  last  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  about  the  time  of  the  famine,  with  the 
destruction  or  departure  of  so  many  of  the  Celtic  in- 
habitants, the  almost  complete  loss  of  hope,  and  the 
abandoning  of  the  Celtic  language,  Irish  literature 
seemed  to  come  to  an  end.  If  the  old  treasures  were 
to  be  remembered,  so  it  seemed,  they  must  be  rendered 
into  English,  and  this  was  done  sometimes  by  scholars 
and  poets — by  Sir  Samuel  Ferguson,  perhaps,  best 
of  all. 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  335 

But  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
after  O'Connell  had  got  Catholic  emancipation  but 
failed  to  get  repeal  of  the  Union,  when  the  great 
famine  had  ruined  the  Celtic  people,  and  the  outlook 
seemed  hopeless,  Young  Ireland,  led  by  men  like 
Gavan  Duffy  and  Davis,  who  refused  to  despair  of 
their  country,  made  strong  and  deliberate  efforts  to 
arouse  the  spirit  of  Irish  nationality,  and  attempted 
to  do  this  largely  through  recalling  the  Irish  literature 
of  the  past.  The  Nation,  their  strong  and  vigorous 
paper,  had  as  a  motto,  "To  create  and  foster  public 
opinion  in  Ireland — to  make  it  racy  of  the  soil." 
Duffy  himself  collected  a  volume  of  Anglo-Irish  and 
Celtic  ballads,  and  Young  Ireland  soon  began  to  pub- 
lish in  the  Nation  original  poems.  The  beautiful 
Irish  Melodies  of  Moore  were  the  lament  for  some- 
thing gone  and  lost,  but  these  writings  were  filled 
with  strong  and  passionate  hope  for  the  future.  This 
was,  indeed,  the  beginning  of  a  revival  of  Irish  nation- 
ality, something  that  O'Connell  had  neither  at- 
tempted nor,  perhaps,  been  able  to  accomplish.  The 
work  halted  after  a  while,  and  was  almost  lost  to  sight, 
and  certainly  little  recked  of  outside  Ireland  during 
the  Home  Rule  period  of  Parnell  and  John  Red- 
mond. 

But  again  it  appeared.  About  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  began  an  Irish  literary  revival,  which 
was  partly  a  manifestation  of  English  literature  and 
partly  a  rebirth  of  Irish  spirit  and  feeling.  What 
was  written  in  the  English  language  has  been  one  of 


336    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  most  vital  and  distinctive  parts  of  literary  activity 
in  English  during  the  last  generation,  but  it  merges 
directly  into  another  movement  which  has  been  the 
revival  of  the  Irish  past  and  of  Irish  national  as- 
pirations. 

Mr.  George  Bernard  Shaw  is  only  slightly  of  this 
movement,  though  one  of  the  most  brilliant  figures 
during  the  course  of  its  period,  and  notwithstanding 
that  in  some  of  his  work  he  criticises  England's  ad- 
ministration in  Ireland.  Like  Oscar  Wilde,  he  is  one 
of  the  great  figures  in  modern  English  dramatic 
writing,  in  which  he  excels  through  remarkable  bril- 
liancy and  power  of  his  dialogue.  The  same  is  true, 
though  less  so,  of  George  Moore.  He  did  deliber- 
ately ally  himself  with  the  literary  movement  going 
on  about  Dublin  and  even  wrote  plays  for  the  Irish 
Literary  Theater;  but  his  aptitude  and  his  power 
have  been  in  another  field,  and  it  is  as  master  of  real- 
ism in  English  fiction  that  he  is  best  known. 

The  "Celtic  Revival"  in  its  literary  aspect  actually 
began  with  the  work  of  a  group  of  new  poets  and 
was  continued  and  carried  forward  by  a  new  school 
of  dramatic  writers.  The  poetry,  which  some  critics 
have  mistakenly  declared  was  first  inspired  by  study 
of  the  French  decadents,  was  for  a  while  merely 
imitative  and  not  very  deep.  But  presently  Mr.  W. 
B.  Yeats,  among  others,  began  using  with  great  skill 
and  effect  the  stories  and  spirit  of  old  Irish  legend 
and  folk-lore.  In  1889  he  published  his  "Wander- 
ings of  Oisin,"  which  has  been  regarded  as  the  be- 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  337 

ginning  of  this  Irish  renaissance.  There  was  not  in 
the  work  of  these  writers  much  that  was  directly  con- 
nected with  the  revival  of  Irish  nationality,  for  they 
created  a  realm  of  poetry  far  remote  from  politics 
and  the  clash  of  peoples ;  their  spirit  was  one  of  aloof- 
ness from  the  world  in  which  they  lived,  their  stories 
and  their  characters  were  vague,  shadowy,  and  dis- 
tant, and  were  of  general  types  rather  than  Irish; 
yet  they  revived  some  of  the  dreaminess  and  mystery 
of  old  Celtic  romance,  and  their  stories  were  some- 
times of  Medb,  Conchobar,  and  Deirdre. 

More  important  and  later,  there  grew  up  about 
Dublin  a  school  of  drama,  which  revived  the  old  Irish 
spirit  and  embodied  some  of  what  had  survived  into 
the  present,  since  its  work  was  based  partly  upon  an- 
cient Irish  legends  and  partly  upon  observation  of  the 
peasants  in  west  Ireland,  where  Celtic  character  and 
speech  had  survived  more  than  anywhere  else.  Its 
leaders  were  working  here  in  new  fields,  and  were 
able  to  give  a  reality  and  spontaneity  to  their  work 
which  speedily  made  it  great  and  important;  though 
critics  believe  that  it  has  now  passed  the  time  of  its 
real  originality  and  vigor,  and  becoming  already  arti- 
ficial has  entered  upon  its  decline.  However  that  be, 
the  Irish  theater  was  one  of  the  most  striking  and 
vigorous  literary  movements  of  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century;  it  had  great  importance  in  Ire- 
land, and  everywhere  aroused  interest  and  attention. 

Some  distinguished  writers  contributed  to  this 
work.  Lady  Gregory  wrote  several  plays  herself, 


338    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

"Kincora"  about  Brian's  time  and  "The  Gaol  Gate" 
of  the  present  among  others,  and  through  her  interest 
and  activity  became  almost  the  patroness  of  the 
movement.  Moreover,  she  brought  back  in  marvel- 
lous fashion  the  wonders  of  old  Gaelic  romance  by 
translations  into  English,  such  as  "Cuchulain  of 
Muirthemne"  and  "Gods  and  Fighting  Men."  Mr. 
Yeats  did  some  of  his  best  work  in  the  dramatic 
writing  of  this  time:  "The  Countess  Cathleen," 
"The  Land  of  Heart's  Desire,"  "Deirdre,"  and, 
above  all,  "Cathleen  ni  Houlihan,"  which  has  seemed 
to  typify  Ireland  subject  to  the  conqueror.  Mr. 
George  W.  Russell  ("A.  E.")  is  less  famous  for  his 
plays  than  for  a  splendid  body  of  writing  in  prose 
and  in  verse;  with  Mr.  Yeats  and  Mr.  Douglas  Hyde 
he  has  led  the  Irish  revival  through  most  of  its 
course.  Above  all  of  them  was  J.  M.  Synge,  one  of 
the  greatest  of  modern  dramatists  who  have  written 
in  English.  The  earlier  part  of  his  life  was  spent 
abroad,  where  he  studied  the  literatures  of  the  con- 
tinent, particularly  of  France,  but  his  last  ten  years 
were  on  the  Arran  Islands,  or  the  lonely  west  coast 
of  Ireland  among  the  Irish  peasantry,  in  the  hush 
and  desolation  of  Connaught.  He,  like  Yeats,  stood 
apart  from  the  currents  of  thought  about  him.  His 
interest  was  in  art,  not  politics;  the  characters  and 
the  passions  of  his  plays  are  less  Irish  than  of  all 
humankind;  yet,  while  he  is  using  the  English  lan- 
guage, he  is  also  writing  of  Ireland  and  things  Irish, 
however  aloof  his  writings  may  seem  from  Sinn  Fein, 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  339 

Most  readers  now  know  his  "Riders  to  the  Sea,"  "The 
Playboy  of  the  Western  World,"  "The  Well  of  the 
Saints,"  and,  best  of  them  all,  "Deirdre  of  the  Sor- 
rows." Many  of  the  plays  of  this  school  were  pro- 
duced at  the  Abbey  Theater  in  Dublin,  which  be- 
came the  center  of  the  dramatic  movement. 

The  work  of  these  writers,  especially  the  poems 
and  the  plays,  has  been  taken  up  by  ardent  Irish 
nationalists,  to  whom  it  represents  Ireland  revived 
and  the  greatness  of  Ireland's  soul.  And  yet  it 
should  be  said  that  it  goes  much  less  far  than  many 
others  desired,  often  took  what  seemed  feeble  interest 
in  the  great  problems  of  Ireland's  present,  and  some- 
times, as  in  "The  Playboy  of  the  Western  World," 
seemed  to  belittle  Irish  character  rather  than  exalt  it. 
Not  so  much,  then,  did  the  work  of  these  writers  lead 
to  the  extreme  nationalism  and  ambition  of  Sinn  Fein 
as  what  developed  from  the  efforts  of  the  Gaelic 
League. 

For  a  great  many  years  the  Irish  language  had 
seemed  approaching  complete  extinction,  with  obliv- 
ion of  old  Irish  character  and  ideals  not  far  away. 
But  some  desired  greatly  that  this  should  not  be,  since 
if  Ireland  was  to  keep  individuality  and  Irish  charac- 
ter its  people  must  retain  their  Irish  speech,  it  was 
said.  In  1876  there  had  been  founded  a  Society  for 
the  Preservation  of  the  Irish  Language.  From  it 
later  came  the  Gaelic  Union,  upon  which  in  1893,  Mr. 
Douglas  Hyde,  poet,  student  of  Irish  and  of  the  old 
folk-lore,  together  with  some  of  his  friends,  estab- 


340          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

lished  the  Gaelic  League.  It  was  instituted  for  the 
purpose  of  reviving  the  Irish  language,  and  with  it  the 
old  culture,  customs,  and  amusements.  I  shall  have 
to  speak  elsewhere  of  the  political  development  which 
succeeded  and  almost  obscured  this  movement;  of 
how  in  the  years  following  groups  of  ardent  men  and 
women,  giving  much  thought  to  the  glories  that  had 
been,  dreamed  also  of  a  new  and  strong  Ireland  in 
the  future,  an  Ireland  very  different  from  that  which 
Englishmen  with  best  intention  were  trying  to  con- 
struct, for  if  their  way  could  be  had,  they  would  purge 
the  island  of  all  traces  of  British  influence  and  of  all 
connection  with  the  Empire,  and  make  an  Ireland 
purely  Irish.  It  was  not  with  such  thoughts  but 
rather  with  the  Irish  language  and  literature  that  the 
movement  at  first  was  concerned.  The  brilliant 
literary  and  artistic  revival  in  Dublin  did  not  satisfy 
the  adherents  of  the  Gaelic  League,  since  that  was  an 
Anglo-Irish  movement,  while  they  would  revive,  if 
it  were  possible,  in  a  modern  age,  Irish  speech  and 
Irish  letters,  the  old  Irish  system  of  thought  and  way 
of  looking  at  things,  revive  them,  take  what  was  best 
in  them,  and  adapt  them  to  the  time  of  the  present. 
They  conceived  that  small  as  Ireland  was  she  had 
within  her  something  of  priceless  worth  handed  down 
from  olden  times,  which  might  instruct  and  regenerate 
the  world. 

Accordingly,  under  the  stimulus  of  the  League  the 
study  of  Irish  was  taken  up  with  enthusiasm  by  many 
persons  in  private;  and  the  zeal  with  which  men  and 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  341 

women,  often  after  long  working  hours,  have  given 
their  remaining  time  to  learn  the  old  tongue  is  one  of 
the  interesting  things  about  contemporary  Ireland. 
Efforts  had  before  been  made  to  have  Irish  taught  in 
the  schools ;  they  were  now  continued  with  better  suc- 
cess. Down  to  1900  with  few  exceptions  English  was 
the  language  of  instruction,  but  it  was  not  long  be- 
fore Erse  was  taught  in  many  of  the  schools  of  the 
island.  As  the  language  became  more  widely  known, 
there  was  more  reading  of  the  Irish  literature  which 
had  come  down,  and  while  for  the  most  part,  doubt- 
less, the  students  had  little  more  than  a  smattering  of 
the  strange  tongue,  there  were  some  in  whom  the  old 
writings  aroused  the  finest  and  best  exaltation,  who 
not  only  read  with  ardor  and  devotion,  but  began  a 
revival  of  Irish  literature,  expressing  themselves  and 
their  age  in  the  Irish  tongue. 

There  was  a  quiet  idealist,  Padraic  Pearse,  who 
studied  unceasingly  the  old  language,  and  presently 
founded  St.  Enda's  School,  in  which  he  proposed  to 
carry  on  the  education  of  Irish  youths  "as  though  the 
centuries  of  English  occupation  and  culture  had  never 
been,  and  Irish  Ireland  were  a  reality."  l  Irish  dress, 
customs,  and  language  were  part  of  the  life  of  this 
school.  Indeed,  he  appeared  as  one  of  the  modern 
reformers  of  education,  when  he  put  into  effect  the 
ancient  custom  of  fosterage,  thus  adapting  in  his 
pedagogy  something  of  the  tribal  spirit  of  his  land. 

1  Shane  Leslie,  The  Irish  Issue  in  Its  Ainerican  Aspect,  p.  82, 


342    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

It  was  not  long  before  boys  came  to  the  institution 
from  all  over  the  country,  and  masters  and  pupils  be- 
came active  in  the  Gaelic  revival  and  the  impulse  of 
Sinn  Fein.  While  study  of  the  Irish  past  was  awak- 
ening new  spirit  and  leading  to  incalculable  results, 
the  founders  of  the  movement  continued  to  forward 
the  study  of  Irish,  the  reading  of  Celtic  litera- 
ture, speaking  in  Erse,  and  the  writing  and  act- 
ing of  plays.  The  attention  of  outsiders  was  at- 
tracted. Instead  of  Patrick  or  Edmund  or  John 
Irishmen  now  called  themselves  Padraic  or  Eamonn 
or  Sean.  Travellers  began  to  notice  that  the  street 
names  in  Dublin  were  not  only  in  English  but  the 
stranger  signs  of  Irish  as  well — the  Latin  letters,  to 
be  sure,  but  in  curious  form  perhaps  derived  from 
half -uncial  script. 

All  of  this  was  accompanied  by  a  literary  revival 
far  more  truly  Irish  to  those  who  made  it  than  that 
which  was  done  in  the  English  language.  Even 
though  the  "Celtic"  or  Anglo-Irish  literary  revival 
was  in  the  English  language,  much  of  its  work  was 
Irish  in  spirit  and  based  on  the  traditions  of  the  coun- 
try's past;  but  this  was  not  enough  for  disciples  of 
the  Gaelic  League.  They  desired  a  revival  in  which 
the  writing  should  be  in  Irish,  and  while  they  often 
used  English  to  express  the  spirit  within  them,  they 
attempted  to  create  a  contemporary  Gaelic  literature 
also.  Padraic  Pearse,  in  the  days  before  his  tragic 
greatness,  wrote  much  in  Celtic;  Dr.  Hyde  collected 
the  old  folk-stories  and  published  compositions  of  his 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  343 

own;  and  there  have  been  many  poems  and  some 
plays.  A  great  deal  of  this  writing  has  been  done, 
but  except  for  its  political  bearing,  it  has  attracted 
little  attention  outside  of  the  island. 

What  will  come  in  the  future  is  uncertain.  The 
Celtic  Revival  and,  much  more,  the  Gaelic  League 
supplied  the  bases  upon  which  Sinn  Fein  was  able 
to  do  its  work  of  arousing  an  Irish  nationality  so  un- 
compromising and  intense  that  at  last  most  of  the 
people  seemed  determined  to  dissolve  all  connection 
with  England.  The  reformers  believed  that  the  in- 
habitants of  Ireland  must  become  Gaelic  in  habits  of 
thought  and  speech,  and  that  English  should  be 
dropped  or  used  merely  for  intercourse  with  out- 
siders. Certainly  the  champions  of  this  school  have 
pushed  forward  their  work  with  vigor  and  some  suc- 
cess. And  yet,  with  respect  to  the  language,  they 
are  probably  striving  for  what  cannot  be  done.  Most 
probably  their  efforts  will  fail  substantially  in  the  end 
because  of  two  great  difficulties,  which  are  the  lack  of 
uniform  standard  in  the  Irish  language  itself,  and 
after  all  the  superior  attraction  of  English. 

It  is  not  that  Gaelic  is  a  poor  and  rigid  tongue, 
representing  only  a  primitive  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment of  speech,  and  not  capable  of  such  change  as 
would  bring  it  into  use  for  a  new  and  different  civil- 
ization, far  more  complex  and  extended  than  that  of 
its  earlier  time.  Actually  the  Celtic  of  Ireland  is 
very  rich  in.  vocabulary,  containing  in  excess  of  80,000 
words,  many  more  than  some  other  tongues  once 


344    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

great  and  still  used  in  the  present,  and  the  structure 
and  genius  of  the  language  is  such  that  it  offers  ex- 
traordinary facilities  for  forming  new  words,  like 
German  nowadays  or  Greek  long  ago.  The  gram- 
matical structure  is  simple,  and  in  character  the 
language  is  rich  and  expressive.  The  spelling  and 
pronunciation,  however,  are  much  worse  and  much 
more  difficult  even  than  the  English.  But  the  great 
difficulty  is  that  there  is  no  one  standard  of  Irish  at 
present,  which  may  be  adopted  by  those  who  desire 
to  restore  the  language  to  general  use. 

It  is  well  known  that  in  earlier  times  in  most  coun- 
tries of  any  extent  each  locality  developed  its  dialect 
or  language,  and  that  uniformity  of  speech  over  any 
large  area  usually  followed  long  after  political  con- 
solidation or  the  erecting  of  strong  central  rule. 
There  are  still  well  recognized  parts  of  the  German 
language,  and  the  Italian  of  Venetia  is  considerably 
different  from  that  of  Sicily  and  Naples.  In  Spain 
the  Catalan  remains  distinct  from  Castilian,  and 
Proven9al  and  Breton  linger  on  in  France.  In 
France  and  in  England,  indeed,  most  of  the  dialects 
or  languages  of  the  different  parts  have  long  since 
largely  disappeared  in  the  presence  of  one  national 
language,  which  has  come  to  be  the  speech  of  all  edu- 
cated people  and  is  used  for  publications  and  books; 
and  the  constant  teaching  in  schools  and  the  daily 
reading  of  newspapers  make  the  general  acceptance 
of  the  standard  language  easy  and  a  matter  of  course. 
But  for  a  long  time  this  was  the  case  neither  in  Eng- 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  345 

land  nor  France  nor  anywhere  else,  and  the  standard 
language  which  is  now  used  in  the  schools  and  the 
press  has  been  established  through  the  operation  of 
very  definite  causes.  In  Germany  the  publication  of 
Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible  in  the  midst  of  the 
Reformation  had  most  to  do  with  fixing  High  Ger- 
man as  the  speech  of  most  who  spoke  German;  and 
nothing  contributed  more  to  beget  uniformity  in  Eng- 
land than  the  publishing  of  translations  of  the  Bible, 
especially  King  James's  translation  at  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  since  for  a  long  while  it 
was  read  and  re-read  in  numberless  households  until 
it  was  of  the  very  fiber  of  the  minds  and  thought  of 
a  great  many  people.  In  France  the  same  result  was 
gradually  brought  about  through  the  exceeding  im- 
portance and  brilliancy  of  Paris  the  capital,  and  the 
literature  and  edicts  which  thence  went  forth.  Such 
causes  were  not  operative  in  Ireland.  There  was  no 
united  nation,  with  a  splendid  capital  and  strong  gov- 
ernment to  influence  and  direct  its  national  life.  Nor 
was  there  ever  any  one  book  in  Irish  of  general  and 
supreme  importance  to  mold  the  language  of  all  the 
people.  The  New  Testament  was  translated  into 
Irish  in  1603  directly  from  the  Greek,  before  the  ap- 
pearance of  King  James's  version  in  England.  But 
the  English  government  had  no  desire,  apparently,  to 
see  the  publication  of  a  book  which  might  create  the 
very  spirit  of  nationality  which  it  desired  to  destroy; 
and  the  Irish  themselves  wanted  nothing  to  do  with 
the  Reformation  or  religion  of  their  oppressors,  and 


346          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

clung  to  Catholicism,  which,  while  it  may  not  have 
forbidden  the  use  of  the  Bible  generally  by  the  people, 
has  usually  not  encouraged  it.  The  prose  of  Keating 
in  the  seventeenth  century  did  become  a  standard, 
but  such  writing  could  not,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
have  such  profound  and  wide-spread  influence  as  the 
Bible.  Accordingly,  no  one  form  of  Irish  superseded 
the  others,  and  at  present  there  are  three  well-recog- 
nized dialects  in  the  island.  Irishmen  can  under- 
stand all  of  them,  but  there  are  differences.  And  so, 
when  attempt  is  made  to  revive  the  Gaelic  speech,  the 
advocates  of  the  scheme  have  to  choose  one  from  out 
of  the  three,  where  no  one  has  undoubted  title  to  be 
taken. 

I  think,  however,  that  the  greatest  of  all  the  diffi- 
culties is  the  mere  presence  and  position  of  English. 
Britain  is  close  at  hand  with  ten  times  the  number  of 
inhabitants,  and  the  language  of  these  people  is  now 
the  language  of  most  of  the  people  of  Ireland.  With 
the  people  of  Britain  a  great  part  of  the  business  of 
Ireland  is  done,  and  will  continue  to  be  done.  Even 
if  Gaelic  had  come  down  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Ire- 
land without  break  through  a  long  and  unbroken  suc- 
cession of  Irish-speaking  ancestors,  a  great  many 
Irishmen  nowadays  would  find  it  advantageous  or 
necessary  to  know  English.  Moreover,  the  attractive 
and  assimilative  power  of  English  is  very  great: 
Welsh  continues  to  flourish  vigorously  right  beside  it, 
but  only  one-seventh  of  the  people  of  Wales  do  not 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  347 

understand  English,  and  more  than  half  of  them  do 
not  use  the  Welsh  tongue;  in  the  Highlands  of  Scot- 
land few  of  the  people  now  do  not  understand  Eng- 
lish ;  and  in  the  Isle  of  Man  none  at  all.  As  to  Ire- 
land, the  English  language  has  steadily  encroached 
upon  the  Gaelic,  though  the  British  government 
makes  no  deliberate  effort  to  bring  this  about.  In 
Posen  the  utmost  efforts  of  the  German  authorities 
could  not  drive  out  Polish,  but  in  Ireland,  where  the 
government  has  supported  instruction  in  Gaelic  in 
the  schools,  the  old  language  has  with  difficulty  held 
its  own.  The  average  person  cannot  very  conven- 
iently learn  two  languages,  and  while  sentiment  and 
nationalist  feeling  will  cause  many  a  Welshman  or 
inhabitant  of  north  Scotland  to  cling  to  the  Celtic 
speech  of  his  fathers,  while  he  learns  the  English 
which  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  use,  it  will  probably 
be  much  less  easy  to  get  Irishmen  who  use  English 
to  learn  a  strange  and  difficult  tongue  because  of  na- 
tional sentiment  and  feeling.  Hostility  to  England 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  recent  years  have  caused  great 
numbers  of  people  to  begin  the  study  of  Celtic,  but 
it  is  said  that  very  few  of  them  have  arrived  at  any 
proficiency  in  the  study. 

Ireland  has  often  failed  to  fulfill  predictions  made 
about  her,  and  the  elements  of  the  problem  are  in- 
calculable ;  but  granted  that  the  attempted  revival  of 
Gaelic  there  has  met  with  considerable  success,  and 
that  the  spirit  of  the  Gaelic  Revival  has  wrought  im- 


348    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

mense  changes  and  may  bring  about  alterations  still 
more  profound,  it  is  none  the  less  my  opinion  that 
English  will  continue  for  a  long  time  to  be  used  by 
most  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country. 


CHAPTER  II 

SINN    FEIN 

Sinn  Fein  is  definitely  the  policy  of  all  small  nationalities 
.  .  .  Sooner  or  later  they  will  come  to  terms  with  Ulster. 
Already  they  have  destroyed  the  power  of  the  Irish  party, 
and  in  the  future  they  promise  to  check  if  not  annul  the 
political  power  of  the  priest.  .  .  .  Sinn  Fein  is  a  fever, 
against  which  there  is  no  appeal. 

Shane  Leslie,  The  Irish  Issue  in  Its  American 

Aspect,  pp.  73,  80. 

WHEN  in  the  terrible  days  at  the  end  of  July, 
1914,  England,  unprepared  for  war  and  not 
desiring  it,  drifted  toward  the  great  gulf,  when  the 
world  seemed  dark,  and  the  wings  of  the  angel  of 
death  could  almost  be  heard,  all  factions  of  English- 
men hushed  their  political  disputes,  and  stood  with 
face  towards  the  foe.  Even  with  respect  to  the  Irish 
question,  bitterness  seemed  for  the  moment  forgot; 
Nationalists  and  Covenanters  of  Ulster,  who  had 
lacked  but  little  of  beginning  civil  war  to  decide  the 
question  of  Home  Rule,  now  offered  themselves  to 
Britain  for  service  abroad.  The  old  suspicion,  the 
violent  passion,  the  strange,  fratricidal  wrath,  were 
put  aside  for  a  moment  in  the  rush  of  patriotism  and 
generous  emotion.  The  Home  Rule  Bill  soon  be- 
came a  law ;  but  in  behalf  of  Ulster,  since  it  was  real- 

349 


350          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ized  that  circumstances  outside  the  bounds  of  the  Irish 
question  had  ended  the  discussion  for  a  time,  the 
Home  Rule  Act  was  suspended  for  the  period  of  the 
duration  of  the  war.  The  Unionists  were  not  satis- 
fied but  they  acquiesced,  while  Mr.  Redmond,  with 
warm  and  generous  loyalty,  which  afterwards  brought 
him  reproach,  but  which  will  be  remembered  to  his 
honor  for  a  great  while  hereafter,  pledged  the  serv- 
ices of  Irishmen  for  the  Empire  in  the  struggle  just 
begun. 

For  a  while  Irish  matters  were  still.  All  through 
the  British  Isles  men  and  women  were  breathless  be- 
fore the  mighty  and  horrible  events  unfolding  with 
such  awful  swiftness.  The  hour  of  the  Empire  had 
come :  she  had  entered  on  the  greatest  of  all  her  wars. 
Like  an  avalanche  the  German  armies  rushed  through 
Belgium,  over  France,  straight  upon  Paris,  and 
though  almost  by  a  miracle  they  were  turned  aside 
in  the  memorable  weeks  of  September,  people  knew 
there  was  confronting  them  a  struggle  such  as  never 
before.  Britain  was  unready,  and  it  was  a  question 
whether  she  could  be  ready  in  time.  Every  resource 
went  to  preparing  for  a  contest  in  which  almost  every- 
thing but  the  navy  had  to  be  built  up  from  the  be- 
ginning. Soldiers  and  sailors  must  volunteer  in  in- 
credible numbers ;  the  industrial  organization  must  be 
used  to  make  England  a  gigantic  arsenal  for  her  al- 
lies; there  was  an  infinitude  of  things  to  be  done  im- 
mediately, with  greatest  difficulty.  So  it  was  that 
domestic  issues,  like  woman's  suffrage,  social  read- 


SINN  FEIN  351 

justment,  and  the  Irish  question,  were  not  only  put 
aside  for  the  time,  but  by  most  people  nearly  forgot- 
ten. It  was  evident  that  reform  had  to  be  postponed 
while  the  English-speaking  peoples  fought  for  their 
existence. 

Accordingly,  of  the  Irish  question  little  was  heard 
for  more  than  a  year  after  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
The  fine  attitude  of  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  Nation- 
alist Party  was  known,  it  was  believed  that  Irishmen 
from  the  south  and  from  the  north  were  volunteering, 
and  so  far  as  could  be  judged  the  heart  of  Ireland 
appeared  to  be  with  the  Allies.  But  we  know  now 
that  many  things  lay  hidden.  Over  Ireland  the  veil 
of  the  censor  was  thrown.  It  seemed  that  this  was 
as  it  must  be,  from  the  universal  treachery  and  in- 
trigue of  the  Germans.  Yet,  after  a  while  it  was 
rumored  more  and  more  in  the  United  States  that 
Irish  conditions  were  disquieting,  that  Irishmen  were 
taking  small  part  in  the  war,  and  that  England  was 
forced  to  be  on  unceasing  guard.  But  the  rush  of 
events  followed  so  swiftly  that  little  thought  was  given 
to  the  matter,  until  suddenly  came  what  at  first 
seemed  the  inexplicable  news,  that  revolt  had  broken 
out  in  Dublin,  that  rebels  had  sought  help  from  the 
Germans,  and  set  up  an  Irish  republic.  Then  once 
more  the  Irish  question  came  back  into  the  center  of 
interest,  and  as  the  thing  was  more  studied,  it  was 
seen  that  these  startling  new  events  had  arisen  be- 
cause in  recent  years  there  had  been  growing  up, 
for  the  most  part  unknown  to  people  everywhere  else, 


352    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

a  new  Ireland  with  aspirations  and  ideals  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  dominant  Nationalist  Party. 
A  new,  strong,  independent  thing  had  arisen,  silently 
spreading  its  influence  and  power,  partly  despised 
and  partly  ignored,  but  soon  to  be  the  most  important 
element  in  Irish  life.  This  was  Sinn  Fein. 

Sinn  Fein  means  "ourselves"  or  "ourselves  alone." 
Its  purpose  was  Ireland  for  the  Irish,  in  spirit,  in 
politics,  in  every  aspect  of  life.  Now  that  we  look 
back  upon  it  with  better  understanding  it  is  seen  to 
be  merely  one  of  the  instances  of  national  awakening 
which  characterized  the  last  century  or  more.  In 
France  this  spirit  had  saved  the  French  Revolution 
and  carried  it  over  half  Europe  against  a  world  in 
arms;  there  had  been  much  of  it,  sometimes  uncouth 
and  unpleasing,  as  the  American  people  stretched 
over  a  continent  with  eyes  on  the  destiny  before  them ; 
far  in  the  East  it  created  the  new  Japan ;  it  made  Rus- 
sians believe  in  a  grand  destiny  to  come;  silently  it 
fashioned  the  Germany  which  threatened  and  horri- 
fied the  world ;  it  urged  forward  the  Servians  to  seem- 
ing destruction.  It  had  worked  not  only  amidst  great 
nations;  it  had  invigorated  small  ones,  and  inspired 
provinces  and  subject  peoples  to  hope  for  a  day  of 
their  own.  Long  ago  it  had  helped  to  free  Belgium 
from  Holland,  and  more  recently  Norway  from 
Sweden.  It  has  inspired  the  Poles,  it  has  inspired 
the  Czechs  with  hopes  that  have  just  been  fulfilled. 
In  the  modern  Irish  period  it  has  gradually  been  more 
potent,  though  often  lost  for  a  while.  It  had  reap- 


SINN  FEIN  353 

peared  distinctly  with  the  Young  Ireland  movement 
after  1840;  now  it  was  resurrected  once  more  by  the 
Irish  revival  and  Sinn  Fein.  Everywhere  the  devel- 
opment of  nationalism  has  been  characterized  by  com- 
mon features:  the  consciousness  of  individuality, 
strong  desire  on  the  part  of  the  people  to  be  them- 
selves and  develop  themselves  in  their  own  way,  to 
have  their  own  character,  their  own  customs,  their 
own  language,  their  own  literature,  their  own  laws; 
and  usually  it  has  been  accompanied  by  strong  belief 
in  superiority  over  other  peoples  and  by  belief  that  a 
wonderful  and  glorious  future  lay  ahead.  Sinn  Fein 
was  the  renaissance  of  Irish  nationalism  which  began 
in  the  early  years  of  the  twentieth  century,  which  at 
its  worst  was  fantastic  and  impractical,  at  its  best  vig- 
orous, lofty,  and  pure. 

Sinn  Fein  differed  very  greatly  from  the  Irish  Na- 
tionalist movement  which  aimed  at  Home  Rule.  The 
Nationalists  under  John  Redmond  were  like  the  asso- 
ciates of  Isaac  Butt :  they  would  compromise,  and  ac- 
cept of  the  existing  situation  that  which  it  seemed 
wise  to  take.  Ireland  was  a  part  of  the  British  Em- 
pire ;  so  they  would  let  it  remain.  It  was  closely  con- 
nected with  Great  Britain;  they  believed  that  was  as 
it  must  be.  Irish  character  and  custom  were  often 
different  from  the  British,  but  they  recognized  the 
essential  fact  that  most  people  in  Ireland  spoke  the 
language  used  over  the  Channel,  and  they  felt  them- 
selves really  to  be  members  of  one  community  in  the 
British  Isles.  What  they  wanted  was  local  autonomy, 


354          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

a  responsible  Irish  government,  a  government  depend- 
ent upon  Irish  consent,  and  in  purely  Irish  matters 
acting  first  in  the  best  interests  of  Ireland.  They 
thought  that  there  was  nothing  unreasonable  in  this 
demand,  but  something  which  the  English  would  wish 
to  concede  when  once  they  understood  the  situation. 
With  so  much,  they  declared,  they  would  be  content. 
They  intended  that  a  self-governing  Ireland  should 
be  a  loyal  partner  of  England,  and  a  part  of  the  Brit- 
ish Empire. 

Very  different  were  the  ideas  of  the  followers  of 
Sinn  Fein.  They  desired  Ireland  to  be  altogether 
free,  and  if  their  way  could  be  had,  they  would  purge 
the  island  of  all  traces  of  British  influence  and  end  all 
connection  with  the  Empire.  Ireland  should  not  only 
be  free,  but  purely  Irish.  They  would  revive  the  old 
glories,  which  across  departed  centuries  they  looked 
back  on  so  fondly,  in  reconstructing  the  old  character 
and  civilization  of  Erin.  Sinn  Fein  was  at  first 
merely  an  aspect  of  the  Irish  revival,  but  soon  it  be- 
came the  great  new  force  in  the  politics  of  the  island. 

Much  of  the  work  undertaken  by  its  adherents  was 
excellent,  especially  the  cultivation  of  Gaelic  litera- 
ture and  speech,  tending  as  it  did  to  revive  the  best 
of  the  past  and  strengthen  Irish  character  in  the  pres- 
ent. But  after  a  while  it  attracted  unfavorable  at- 
tention as  the  more  ardent  and  extreme  carried  their 
activities  into  the  political  field,  and  began  to  work 
more  openly  for  the  establishment  of  an  independent 
Ireland.  So  far  as  such  things  can  be  said  to  start  at 


SINN  FEIN  355 

any  particular  time,  the  definite  beginning  may  be  put 
at  about  1905.  Two  years  before  this  a  small  group 
of  extremists  had  founded  the  Irish  National  Coun- 
cil at  Dublin.  It  was  a  center  of  disloyalty  to  Eng- 
land, and  bitterly  opposed  the  hospitable  reception 
of  King  Edward  VII,  who  visited  Ireland  at  that 
time.  Its  influence  as  a  separate  organization  soon 
declined,  and  it  was  merged  in  the  Sinn  Fein  move- 
ment, but  in  Sinn  Fein  it  was  presently  one  of  the 
guiding  forces.  Sinn  Fein  was  soon  connected  also 
with  the  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood,  another  so- 
ciety disloyal  to  the  British  government.  Some  of 
the  partisans  of  Sinn  Fein  advocated  adoption  of  the 
methods  of  passive  resistance  which  had  once  helped 
the  Hungarians  to  obtain  their  desires.  They  would 
withdraw  from  the  parliamentary  activities  of  the  Na- 
tionalists, who  were  making  such  slow  progress  in 
getting  Home  Rule  as  to  disappoint  the  more  ardent 
and  impatient,  take  no  part  in  British  politics,  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  British  government,  boycott 
British  goods,  and,  if  possible,  establish  an  informal 
Irish  assembly  supported  by  public  opinion,  and 
withdraw  litigation  from  established  Irish  courts  to 
have  the  cases  settled  informally  by  Irishmen  them- 
selves. For  the  most  part  if  the  movement  attracted 
attention  in  Great  Britain,  it  was  regarded  as  only 
one  of  the  many  fantastic  things  which  arise  in  the 
politics  of  a  great  domain.  But  soon  the  leaders, 
who  had  generally  been  political  idealists  so  far  as 
they  were  concerned  with  politics,  planning  to  regain 


356    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  independence  of  Ireland  through  passive  resist- 
ance or  by  other  means  not  clearly  conceived,  adopted 
active  and  troublesome  policies  or  ceased  to  guide  the 
course  of  Sinn  Fein,  and  more  and  more  the  move- 
ment was  directed  by  violent  extremists.  They  be- 
gan to  act  vigorously  in  discouraging  enlistments  in 
the  British  army,  and  fomenting  what  seemed  to  the 
authorities  disloyalty  and  sedition.  Meanwhile  con- 
nections had  been  established  with  another  revolu- 
tionary society,  the  Clan-na-Gael,  in  America. 

By  1907  adherents  of  Sinn  Fein  spoke  of  the  possi- 
bility of  Irish  independence  through  rebellion,  of  the 
imminence  of  war  between  Germany  and  England, 
and  the  necessity  of  being  ready  if  this  desirable  con- 
flict came  to  pass.  By  this  time  Sinn  Fein,  formerly 
looked  upon  as  something  indefinite,  a  movement  or 
a  spirit  actuating  men,  was  regarded  by  the  authori- 
ties, so  far  as  they  had  correct  information  concern- 
ing it,  as  a  dangerous  revolutionary  society.  Steadily 
the  scope  of  its  work  was  extended.  It  had  arisen 
in  Dublin,  but  in  1907  and  1908  it  established  nearly 
a  hundred  branches  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 
It  now  began  to  try  for  control  of  some  of  the  political 
machinery  of  the  island,  but  as  yet  it  failed  com- 
pletely in  contest  with  the  Nationalist  Party.  In 
1908  Sinn  Fein  leaders  declared  that  by  natural  and 
constitutional  right  Ireland  was  a  sovereign  state. 
In  the  next  year  there  was  a  vigorous  anti-recruiting 
campaign,  and  Irishmen  who  joined  the  army,  navy, 
or  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  were  stigmatized,  as 


SINN  FEIN  357 

traitors  to  their  people.  Year  by  year  Sinn  Feiners 
went  further.  They  attempted  to  mar  the  reception 
of  George  V  in  Ireland,  as  their  predecessors  had 
acted  during  the  visit  of  his  father.  In  1910  the  an- 
nual congress  in  Dublin  declared  in  favor  of  with- 
drawing Irish  representatives  from  the  parliament  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  improving  the  organization  of 
Sinn  Feiners  throughout  the  country,  and  forming 
vigilance  committees  to  urge  on  the  anti-recruiting 
campaign.  Violent  and  extreme  speeches  were  made, 
and  a  great  many  leaflets  and  posters  distributed  to 
deter  all  enlistment. 

As  the  great  struggle  began  for  Home  Rule,  they 
stood  coldly  aloof  from  the  work  being  done  by  the 
Nationalist  Party,  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
such  partial  fulfilment  of  their  aspirations  as  a  grant 
merely  of  self-government  in  Irish  affairs.  They 
wanted  such  entire  independence  that  not  a  vestige  of 
British  rule  would  be  left  in  Ireland.  But  in  spite 
of  all  this  activity  they  did  not  as  yet  attract  much 
attention  from  the  government,  used  as  it  was  to  deal- 
ing with  disaffection  in  Ireland  but  imbued  now  with 
generous  and  conciliatory  feeling.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  that  a  new  and  troublesome  organization  was 
carrying  on  a  virulent  campaign,  annoying  and  often 
thoroughly  disloyal,  but  it  was  thought  to  be  the  work 
of  a  few  ardent  spirits  more  troublesome  than  im- 
portant, who  had  little  influence  with  most  of  the 
Irish  people.  Certainly  the  voters  continued  to  elect 
Nationalist  representatives  pledged  to  work  for  Home 


358          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Rule;  when  Sinn  Feiners  spoke  they  seemed  not  to 
reach  many  people;  when  they  contested  parliamen- 
tary districts  they  could  not  win  a  single  election.  It 
was  true  that  many  respectable  people  were  joining 
the  movement,  but  it  was  the  non-political  aspects  of 
the  cause  which  seemed  to  attract  them  most,  those 
teachings  which  advocated  social  and  industrial  im- 
provement, and  also  the  fresh  and  vigorous  intellec- 
tual parts  of  it.  In  accordance  with  the  prevailing 
British  policy  of  tolerance,  and  the  belief  that  the  dis- 
contented and  visionary  should  be  allowed  free  ex- 
pression so  long  as  they  did  no  actual  harm,  the  Sinn 
Fein  movement  was  rather  neglected  than  disturbed 
by  officials.  Its  leaders  were  thought  to  be  either 
idealists  and  visionaries  or  noisy  extremists,  and  most 
of  its  followers  harmless.  It  seemed  to  have  little  in- 
fluence and  as  yet  no  actual  power. 

But  the  leaders  of  Sinn  Fein  glowed  with  the  ardor 
of  a  cause  which  seemed  sacred  to  them.  They  left 
nothing  undone  for  its  advancement  and  the  winning 
of  converts.  Always  the  dominant  idea  was  that  of 
the  originators  of  the  thing,  that  there  should  be  an 
Irish  Ireland  with  as  little  of  English  spirit  and  influ- 
ence as  possible.  While  most  Irishmen  looked  for- 
ward more  and  more  confidently  to  the  getting  of 
Home  Rule,  the  adherents  of  Sinn  Fein  awaited  it  in 
sullen  disgust,  and  perhaps  would  have  been  better 
pleased  had  the  Home  Rule  scheme  failed  completely ; 
for  to  them  it  could  be  nothing  more  than  a  half -meas- 
ure at  best,  and  actually  a  dangerous  thing,  inasmuch 


SINN  FEIN  359 

as  Irishmen  might  be  beguiled  into  contentment  with 
connection  with  England  and  forget  the  bright  ideal 
of  Sinn  Fein,  which  was  independence  entire  and  com- 
plete. Likewise  the  operation  of  the  laws  for  the 
purchase  of  land  gave  them  little  satisfaction  and  in- 
spired no  gratitude  at  all.  They  were  unwilling  that 
Irishmen  should  not  rely  entirely  on  themselves,  and 
thought  it  an  evil  thing  for  them  to  take  assistance 
from  the  British  government,  which  anyhow,  they 
said,  was  only  selling  back  in  a  grudging  way  that 
which  once  had  been  stolen.  Constantly  Sinn  Feiners 
drew  themselves  farther  and  farther  away  from  all 
British  activity  and  influence.  Constantly  their  de- 
fiance became  uglier,  more  bitter,  and  more  open. 
They  said  and  published  insulting  an'd  treasonable 
things  which  never  would  they  have  dared  to  utter 
in  the  Germany,  to  which  they  were  beginning  to  look 
for  assistance,  things  which  only  a  strong  govern- 
ment could  afford  to  overlook,  and  only  a  very  liberal 
one  would  be  willing  to  tolerate.  Afterwards,  in- 
deed, there  were  some  who  thought  that  the  leniency 
f  not  the  supineness  of  the  British  government  had  not 
a  little  to  do  in  bringing  about  the  catastrophe  which 
followed.  Had  it  been  stronger  and  more  vigorous 
in  repression,  men  said,  its  enemies  would  not  have 
presumed  to  go  to  the  lengths  they  did. 

Some  idea  of  the  character  of  Sinn  Fein  and  its 
work  at  this  time  can  be  gained  from  a  study  of  one 
of  its  most  prominent  and  vigorous  leaders,  who  had 
been  Constance  Gore-Booth,  and  was  now  the 


360          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Countess  de  Markievicz.  Her  antecedents  were  much 
like  those  of  Parnell.  She  was  the  daughter  of  one 
of  the  greatest  land-owners  in  the  west  of  Ireland, 
English  by  birth,  Protestant  in  religion.  She  was 
connected  with  many  aristocratic  English  families. 
Strong,  vigorous,  and  filled  to  overflowing  with  en- 
ergy, she  studied  art  in  Paris,  married  a  Polish 
Count,  gradually  allied  herself  with  new  movements 
and  democratic  tendencies,  and  returning  to  Dublin 
made  her  house  one  of  the  principal  centers  of  Sinn 
Fein  and  the  extreme  Irish  movement.  Dublin  was 
at  this  time  a  place  of  extraordinary  intellectual  ac- 
tivity, and  of  this  her  residence  became  one  of  the 
principal  seats.  "It  is  hard  now  to  think  of  that 
hospitable  house  in  Leinster  Road  with  all  the  life 
gone  out  of  it,"  wrote  one  who  had  known  her  there. 
"Every  one  coming  to  Dublin  who  was  interested  in 
plays,  painting,  the  Gaelic  language,  suffrage,  labor, 
or  Irish  Nationalism,  visited  there.  The  Countess 
Markievicz  kept  'open  house'  not  only  for  her  friends, 
but  for  her  friends'  friends."  1  The  place  was  full  of 
books,  it  was  often  the  scene  of  amateur  dramatic 
performances,  it  was  sometimes  the  hiding  place  of 
those  whose  activities  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  law,  and  from  it  the  hungry  laborers  were  fed 
during  the  strike  of  the  Transport  Workers. 

In  1909  Countess  Markievicz  did  what  she  regarded 
as  her  most  important  work.     In  England,  under  the 

i  Margaret  Skinnider,  Doing  My  Bit  for  Ireland  (New  York,  1917), 
p.  10, 


SINN  FEIN  361 

increasing  menace  of  German  power,  the  Boy  Scout 
movement  had  begun  and  attained  large  proportions. 
The  English  leaders  wished  to  establish  a  similar  or- 
ganization in  Ireland.  Padraic  Pearse  was  asked  to 
assist,  but  declined  since  he  did  not  wish  to  do  anything 
which  might  help  to  make  closer  the  ties  between 
the  two  peoples.  Then  Countess  Markievicz  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  forming  an  Irish  national  boys'  or- 
ganization. She  had  little  encouragement  from  her 
associates  at  first,  for  they  thought  the  training  and 
arming  of  boys  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old  a  useless 
labor,  but  her  reply  was:  "In  ten  years  these  boys 
will  be  men."  In  all  respects  did  this  organization 
partake  of  the  spirit  of  Sinn  Fein  and  the  Irish  re- 
vival: the  training  was  modelled  upon  that  of  the 
ancient  Irish  system;  the  boys  learned  the  methods 
of  the  old  Irish  champions ;  and  they  had  the  name  of 
the  ancient  heroic  Irish  military  brotherhood,  Fianna. 
Under  the  tuition  of  the  Countess  and  her  friends 
these  boys  imbibed  the  fiercest  and  most  extreme  feel- 
ing of  intense  nationality.  Their  oath  of  loyalty 
early  attracted  the  attention  of  foes  of  Home  Rule, 
who  believed  that  Irishmen  would  not  be  faithful  to 
the  Empire,  if  opportunity  came  to  break  the  tie  al- 
together: "I  promise  to  work  for  the  Independence 
of  Ireland,  never  to  join  England's  armed  forces,  and 
to  obey  my  superior  officers,"  was  their  declaration.3 

2  The  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916  and  Its  Martyrs:  Erin's  Tragic  Easter, 
edited  by  Maurice  Joy  (New  York,  1916),  p.  348. 

s  Quoted  in  leaflet:  Irish  Loyalty  (?)  under  Home  Rule  (Ulster 
Unionist  Council). 


362    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

These  youths,  however  noble  their  ideas  may  have 
been,  acted  and  were  encouraged  to  act  with  all  the 
insolence  and  uncompromising  hostility  which  eager, 
prejudiced  youth  is  wont  to  display.  "We  went  out," 
wrote  one  who  shared  their  spirit  and  was  proud  of  it, 
"joined  the  other  Fianna,  and  walked  about  the 
streets  whistling  rebel  tunes.  Whenever  we  passed 
a  British  soldier  we  made  him  take  to  the  gutter,  tell- 
ing him  the  streets  of  Dublin  were  no  place  'for  the 
likes  of  him.'  " 4  They  attacked  recruiting-booths, 
and  merrily  sang  the  song  which  Madam  had  com- 
posed, and  which  ended: 

From  a  Gael  with  a  gun  the  Briton  will  run ! 
And  we'll  dance  at  the  wake  of  the  Empire,  boys !  5 

In  all  this  there  was  the  strange  mixture  of  mean 
pettiness  and  exalted  idealism  in  which  fanatic  ardor 
rejoices  when  it  is  consecrated  singly  to  some  cause. 
As  the  suffragettes  would  poison  dogs  and  disfigure 
works  of  art,  and  yet  willingly  have  given  their  lives 
for  the  sake  of  some  betterment  for  womankind  and 
the  human  race,  so  Sinn  Fein  and  the  Fianna  boys 
mingled  petty  and  noble  things  in  one  fierce  opposi- 
tion to  that  which  they  believed  must  go  down:  they 
would  sing  insulting  songs  and  pick  quarrels  with 
soldiers,  but  sacrifice  themselves  joyfully,  as  they  did 
somewhat  later,  for  what  they  thought  was  the  best 
interest  of  their  country.  Often  has  this  been  before, 

^Skinnider,  pp.  22,  23. 
5  Skinnider,  p.  24. 


SINN  FEIN  363 

and  often  will  be  again,  no  doubt,  whenever  fanatic 
reformers  see  little  and  see  narrowly,  but  see  with 
terrible  intensity  and  depth. 

Some  of  it  all  must  have  seemed  very  heartless ;  and 
Englishmen,  doubtless,  when  they  knew  about  it, 
could  scarce  have  understood  what  it  meant.  In 
those  last  ominous  years  when  Britain  lay  more  and 
more  under  the  nearing  shadow  of  conflict  with  Ger- 
many, and  many  a  man  and  woman  faced  the  future 
with  strange  and  pathetic  uncertainty,  that  war  play, 
An  Englishman's  Home,  was  brought  over  from  Eng- 
land into  Ireland.  The  play  is  crude,  but  terrible  and 
poignant  enough  for  those  who  realize  its  meaning. 
The  Countess  Markievicz  took  the  Fianna  boys  to  see 
it  on  the  opening  night.  They  had  pit  and  gallery, 
while  British  officers  and  their  wives  filled  most  of  the 
rest  of  the  theater.  After  a  while  came  that  part  of 
the  play  where  the  German  invaders  appear  on  tKe 
stage.  Then  the  Fianna,  in  their  distinctive  cos- 
tume, rose  and  sang  in  German  "The  Watch  on  the 
Rhine."  When  an  English  officer  and  others  stood 
up  and  sang  "God  Save  the  King,"  they  were  pelted 
with  eggs  and  vegetables,  so  that  the  performance  was 
stopped.  Thus  ended  the  Dublin  run  of  the  piece, 
writes  Margaret  Skinnider,  who  relates  the  incident 
with  approval,  and  who  could  still  in  1916  think  it  a 
very  fine  thing.  After  the  war  began  the  Fianna 
boys  went  about  Dublin  breaking  up  recruiting  meet- 
ings, routing  the  speakers,  and  upsetting  the  plat- 
forms :  she  declares  that  while  this  sounds  like  rowdy- 


364    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ism — and  some  will  agree  that  it  does — "it  is  only  by 
such  tests  of  courage  and  strength  that  the  youth  of  a 
dominated  race  can  acquire  the  self-confidence  needed 
later  for  the  real  struggle."  6  They  were  encouraged 
to  fight  with  the  English  Boy  Scouts  and  bring  home 
hats  and  poles  as  trophies ;  and  for  a  while  the  police 
were  disturbed  to  see  Fianna  boys  shooting  in  prac- 
tice at  targets  made  like  English  soldiers. 

Meanwhile  a  stronger  weapon  was  being  prepared : 
in  the  early  part  of  1913  the  National  Council  of  Sinn 
Fein  proclaimed  it  to  be  the  duty  of  every  member  to 
know  well  the  use  of  arms.  The  Ulster  Volunteers 
were  already  drilling  in  the  north  to  resist  Home  Rule 
if  it  came;  towards  the  end  of  the  year  the  National 
Volunteers  were  formed  in  the  middle  and  southern 
parts  of  the  island  to  support  it.  At  once  the  ex- 
tremists, Sinn  Fein  and  the  Irish  Republican  Broth- 
erhood, took  an  active  part  in  organizing  this  move- 
ment, with  a  view,  it  was  believed,  to  getting  control 
of  it  and  using  it  as  a  weapon  to  carry  out  their  plans, 
Sir  Roger  Casement  being  one  of  the  foremost  leaders 
in  doing  this.  Progress  of  the  National  Volunteer 
movement  was  not  great  at  the  start,  for  most  Irish- 
men were  following  the  constitutional  methods  of 
Redmond  and  his  associates ;  but  when  it  was  believed, 
as  it  was  early  in  1914,  that  such  an  organization  fur- 
nished the  only  means  of  successfully  opposing  the 
Ulster  Volunteers,  it  grew  very  rapidly,  and  the  Na- 
tionalist parliamentary  party,  which  at  first  had 

e  Skinnider,  p.  23. 


SINN  FEIN  365 

viewed  it  askance,  now  gave  it  recognition,  and  sought 
also  to  obtain  the  control.  By  the  end  of  July,  when 
England  was  on  the  verge  of  war,  it  had  160,000  mem- 
bers, and  was  rapidly  getting  on  a  sound  military 
basis.  On  the  eve  of  war  Mr.  Redmond  declared  that 
Ireland  would  be  defended  from  invasion  by  her  sons, 
and  that  armed  Catholics  of  the  south  would  be  glad 
to  join  hands  for  that  purpose  with  the  armed  Prot- 
estants of  the  north.  Redmond's  loyalty  to  England 
and  his  efforts  soon  after  to  encourage  enlistments  in 
the  forces  of  the  Empire  angered  the  extremists  who 
had  no  intention  of  helping  England,  and  who  de- 
clared that  the  Volunteers  had  been  brought  into  ex- 
istence to  fight  for  Ireland  alone.  They  themselves 
were  doing  all  they  could  to  interfere  with  recruiting 
for  Great  Britain.  Hence  it  was  not  long  before 
there  was  a  split  in  the  organization.  The  Sinn  Fein- 
ers  fell  off,  and  organized  their  adherents  as  the  Irish 
Volunteers,  while  the  main  body  from  which  they  had 
seceded  was  known  as  the  Irish  National  Volunteers. 
In  the  months  which  followed,  the  larger  force 
dwindled  away,  the  extremists  joining  Sinn  Fein,  its 
most  loyal  members  enlisting  to  serve  in  the  war.  The 
Sinn  Fein  leaders  redoubled  their  exertions.  Some 
of  them,  misled  by  their  narrow  patriotism  or  played 
upon  by  German  agents,  began  to  believe  that  the 
hoped-for  day  was  at  hand.  They  had  preached  for 
some  years  that  the  Empire  would  fall  before  Ger- 
many, and  that  then  Ireland's  glory  would  revive.  So 
now  Sir  Roger  Casement  and  others  eagerly  organ- 


366    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ized  and  drilled  the  Irish  Volunteers,  increasing  their 
efficiency  and,  as  Irishmen  became  more  discontented, 
steadily  adding  to  their  numbers. 

Such  was  Sinn  Fein.  There  was  something  about 
it  that  was  lovable  and  noble,  beautiful  and  strong. 
Wherever  there  is  intensity  and  sincerity,  there  is  ever 
some  nobility  and  strength ;  but  the  spirit  which  sup- 
ports them  is  closely  allied  with  intolerance  and  big- 
oted hardness.  Already  Sinn  Fein  had  brought  some 
benefit  to  Ireland :  it  was  teaching  the  new  generation 
to  love  the  best  of  whatever  was  good  in  the  past,  and 
it  was  making  strong  and  self-reliant  the  men  and 
women  of  the  country.  The  intensity  and  reality  of 
what  it  contained  had  attracted,  as  is  always  the  case, 
some  of  the  strongest  and  brightest  minds  of  its  time. 
There  was  excellent  writing,  much  revival  of  old  Irish 
manners  and  speech,  some  reform  in  education,  and  a 
strong  and  invigorating  spiritual  stimulus.  And  yet, 
there  was  not  much  that  was  really  constructive  about 
it,  nor  was  there  much  of  the  practical  good  sense 
which  takes  things  as  they  are  and  does  the  best  that 
is  to  be  done  with  them.  The  bulk  of  the  Irish  people 
still  followed  the  constitutional  party  which  was  striv- 
ing for  Home  Rule,  willing  to  make  compromise  with 
Britain,  and  willing  to  live  in  accord  with  her,  as 
seemed  prescribed  now  in  the  mere  fate  of  things. 
Sinn  Feiners  looked  little  at  the  present,  but  much 
at  the  past  long  departed,  which  they  strove  to  revive 
in  the  excellence  and  beauty  which  scholars  and 
dreamers  thought  it  had  had,  and  much  at  an  ideal 


SINN  FEIN  367 

future  which  was  fondly  believed  to  be  not  far  away. 
Otherwise  most  of  their  energy  was  given  to  oppos- 
ing and  despising  everything  British.  Ireland  must 
be  altogether  Irish;  Britain  was  exceedingly  hateful. 
If  Ireland  could  be  free,  nothing  else  mattered. 

What  judgment  shall  be  given  upon  them?  Cer- 
tainly they  were  not  wicked  or  depraved;  but  were 
they  not  sometimes  childlike  and  foolish,  seeing  only 
a  little  of  the  things  in  this  world,  and  seeing  that  little 
with  such  terrible  ardor  that  brain  and  heart  were  on 
fire?  So,  as  England  stood  beside  Belgium  and 
France,  as  she  stood  forth  to  defend  all  of  her  heri- 
tage and  all  that  that  heritage  means  to  the  world, 
she  was  seen  by  Sinn  Fein  only  as  a  greedy  robber 
waiting  again  for  the  spoil.  And  as  the  Germans 
went  through  Belgium  and  Poland  with  starvation  and 
fire,  with  torment  and  rape,  as  spies  filled  the  earth, 
as  treaties  were  torn  up,  as  ships  were  sunk  with  their 
crews,  as  the  world  was  in  agony,  and  civilization  and 
humanity  seemed  to  many  to  be  tottering  to  their  fall, 
Germany  appeared  to  these  Irishmen  like  some 
knightly  champion  who  might  strike  down  their  tyrant 
and  get  them  their  freedom.  They  hated  England 
so  much  as  to  like  every  one  of  her  foes,  and  would 
gladly  take  such  help  as  any  of  her  f oemen  could  give. 
How  little  did  they  understand  the  awful  stake,  and 
the  mighty  issue  for  the  world!  What  was  Irish  in- 
dependence that  it  should  be  preferred  to  the  freedom 
of  all  peoples?  How  could  Sinn  Fein  have  under- 
stood Germany?  Never,  except  for  selfish  and  tern- 


368    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

porary  reason,  would  she  have  tolerated  them  or  any 
of  their  ways;  they  had  only  to  look  at  Lorraine  and 
Schleswig  and  Prussian  Poland.  And  little  did  they 
know  modern  England.  Englishmen  understood 
them  not  much  as  yet,  but  when  a  year  later  their  up- 
rising and  defeat  had  got  them  attention,  an  English- 
man could  say  of  them  in  right  good  will:  "There  is 
room  for  Sinn  Fein  in  the  Commonwealth,  room 
enough  and  to  spare."  7 

7  Barker,  Ireland  in  the  Last  Fifty  Years,  p.  108. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   EASTER   REBELLION 

In  the  event  of  England  finding  herself  engaged  in  a  serious 
war,  the  regular  garrison  in  this  country  would  be  reduced 
to  about  6,000  fighting  men.  .  .  .  Ireland  can  be  freed  by 
force  of  arms,  that  is  the  fact  which  ever  must  be  borne  in 
mind.  .  .  . 

Irish  Freedom,  September,  1912,  quoted  in  leaflet: 
Plain  Facts  about  Home  Rule. 

In  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  dead  generations  from 
which  she  receives  her  old  tradition  of  nationhood,  Ireland 
through  us,  summons  her  children  to  her  flag  and  strikes 
for  her  freedom. 

Poblacht  Na  H  Eireann:     Proclamation 
of  the  Irish  Republic. 

AS  the  winter  of  1915-1916  waned  into  spring, 
people  of  the  Allied  countries,  who  had  lived 
through  a  terrible  time,  entered  on  gray  and  dreary 
days,  with  little  hope  except  in  the  future.  The  enor- 
mous power  of  Germany  on  land,  her  thorough  prep- 
aration, her  sudden  and  treacherous  stroke,  her  ruth- 
less determination  to  win  at  all  cost  of  humanity  or 
honor,  had  given  undeniable  advantage,  which  many 
persons  believed  could  not  be  overcome.  It  was  a  ter- 
rible thing  to  have  to  believe  that  so  much  wickedness 
and  cruelty  could  triumph:  to  many  it  seemed  that 
such  a  triumph  would  set  the  seal  upon  evil  and  dis- 

369 


370    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

honor,  so  that  there  could  be  no  more  trust  in  right- 
eousness, no  faith  in  nations  or  men.  For  Germany 
the  tide  had  run  strong :  her  armies  had  been  stayed  in 
the  first  rush  on  Paris,  but  they  were  not  far  off,  and 
the  Allies  could  not  drive  them  out  of  their  lines;  in 
the  east  the  attack  at  the  Dardanelles  had  ended  in 
failure  splendid  but  complete;  meanwhile  the  power 
of  Russia  had  been,  as  we  know  now,  almost  entirely 
broken;  Servia  had  been  crushed,  Middle  Europe 
achieved;  on  the  sea  England's  power  was  being 
sapped  by  submarine  destruction;  the  weight  of  war 
and  its  sacrifices  were  crushing  England  and  France. 
Germany  had  won,  if  things  remained  as  they  were; 
and  there  was  good  reason  for  believing  that  she  could 
not  be  torn  from  her  conquests.  In  this  heart-break- 
ing time,  when  only  courage  and  necessity  held  back 
despair,  suddenly  came  news  that  Ireland  had  risen 
behind  England's  back,  that  during  Easter  week  Dub- 
lin and  other  places  were  in  the  throes  of  a  fierce  in- 
surrection to  establish  an  Irish  Republic. 

"A  declaration  of  war  by  any  foreign  power  against 
the  British  nation  is  a  signal  for  faction  and  rebellion 
in  Ireland,"  said  the  Earl  of  Clare  in  1800  in  a  speech 
on  the  proposed  Act  of  Union.  "The  received 
maxim  is,  not  to  forego  the  opportunity  of  foreign 
war  to  press  forward  Irish  claims."  Ireland,  he  said, 
in  time  of  danger  was  like  a  millstone  hung  about  the 
neck  of  Great  Britain.1  Certainly  this  had  been  true 

i  The  Speech  of  the  Right  Honourable  John,  Earl  of  Clare,  Lord 
High  Chancellor  of  Ireland,  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  Ireland,  etc. 
(Dublin,  1800),  republished  by  the  Union  Defence  League,  p.  19. 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          371 

in  the  sadder  days  of  the  past,  but  one  had  hoped 
that  the  better  relations  and  the  wiser  conduct  of  Eng- 
land in  the  generation  preceding  the  war  would  at 
last  have  made  Irishmen  different.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  most  of  the  Irish  people  favored  the  cause 
of  the  Entente,  were  loyal  to  the  British  Empire,  and 
could  be  trusted  as  things  were.  A  writer  considered 
that  the  population  might  be  reckoned  as  one-sixth 
ultra-British  and  anti-Irish,  one-sixth  extreme  Irish 
and  anti-British,  and  the  other  two-thirds  ready  for 
friendship  with  Great  Britain.  However  this  be, 
there  was  certainly  not  more  than  a  small  minority 
at  the  beginning  of  1916  who  desired  any  disturb- 
ance or  who  were  ready  to  embarrass  Great  Britain. 
Home  Rule  had  not  gone  into  effect,  and  Irish  en- 
listments were  scanty,  but  while  there  was  some  dis- 
pleasure, most  of  the  people  seemed  to  realize  that 
here  was  an  awful  crisis,  that  smaller  matters  must  be 
postponed  while  greater  ones  were  disposed  of. 

This  was  not  so  with  the  extremists,  the  Irish  Re- 
publican Brotherhood,  the  syndicalist  labor  organiza- 
tion, and  above  all  with  Sinn  Fein.  To  them  the  im- 
mediate realization  of  their  own  particular  aims  was 
of  more  importance  than  anything  else,  and  they 
would  bring  it  about  at  whatever  cost  to  anything 
else;  or  perhaps  it  would  be  truer  to  say  that  they 
considered  other  things  scarcely  at  all.  Certainly  few 
Irishmen  at  this  time  sympathized  with  Germany ;  yet 
it  is  undoubtedly  true,  if  we  may  judge  by  their  words, 
that  the  adherents  of  Sinn  Fein,  in  their  intense  in- 


372          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

dignation  and  passionate  impatience,  had  hoped  for 
defeat  of  England  by  Germany,  and  would  welcome 
German  assistance  for  themselves. 

In  1909  a  radical  newspaper,  working  against  re- 
cruiting, said:  "If  you  prevent  500  men  from  enlist- 
ing you  do  nearly  as  good  work  as  if  you  shot  500  men 
on  the  field  of  battle,  and  also  you  are  making  the 
path  smoother  for  the  approaching  conquest  of  Eng- 
land by  Germany."  2  Four  years  later  a  poster  was 
widely  placarded  in  Ireland: 

The  English  live  in  terror  of  Germany.  War  between 
England  and  Germany  is  at  hand.  England's  cowardly  and 
degenerate  population  won't  make  soldiers :  not  so  the  Ger- 
mans. They  are  trained  and  ready.  What  will  England 
do?  She'll  get  Irish  Fools  to  join  her  Army  and  Navy,  send 
them  to  fight  and  die  for  her  Empire.  Irish  traitors  have 
ever  been  the  backbone  of  her  Army  and  Navy.  .  .  .  Stand 
aside  and  have  your  revenge.  Without  Ireland's  help  Eng- 
land will  go  down  before  Germany  as  she  would  have  gone 
down  before  the  Boers  had  not  the  Irish  fought  her  battle 
in  South  Africa.3 

It  was  recalled  in  England  now  that  Bernhardi, 
whose  notorious  book  had  just  attracted  so  much  at- 
tention, said  that  it  was  interesting  to  know  that  if 
ever  war  came  with  England,  Germany  would  have 
allies  in  Ireland,  who  would  constitute  a  grave  anx- 
iety for  England,  and  perhaps  tie  fast  a  portion  of 
her  troops.4  After  the  beginning  of  the  war,  accord- 

2  Kilkenny  People,  December  4,  1909. 

s  Leaflet:     Britons  Beware!  (Union  Defence  League). 

*  London  Times,  September  19,  1913, 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION         373 

ing  to  a  Sinn  Fein  writer,  an  anti-recruiting  song  of 
the  Countess  Markievicz  was  sung  everywhere: 

For  the  Germans  are  going  to  win,  me  boys, 
And  Ireland  will  have  to  butt  in,  me  boys.  .  .  .5 

And  when  the  rising  had  been  put  down,  Irishmen 
in  the  internment  camp  at  Fron-goch  in  Wales  used 
to  sing  a  song  in  which  every  verse  ended  with  the 
line:  "Sinn  Feiners,  Pro-Germans,  alive,  alive  O!"  6 

In  March,  1916,  the  London  Times  called  attention 
to  the  growth  of  the  Sinn  Fein  movement  in  Ireland, 
and  the  disaffection  which  seemed  to  increase.  The 
government,  it  said,  was  taking  no  measures  to  en- 
sure safety.  Afterwards,  when  too  late,  the  govern- 
ment of  Ireland  was  sharply  criticized  for  doing  noth- 
ing, though  repeated  warnings  had  been  given.  The 
principal  cause  of  the  rebellion,  said  the  Report  of  the 
Royal  Commission  which  investigated  it,  was  that 
lawlessness  had  been  allowed  to  grow  up  unchecked, 
and  that  for  some  years  past  Ireland  had  been  admin- 
istered on  the  principle  that  it  was  more  expedient  to 
leave  law  in  abeyance,  if  collision  with  any  faction  of 
the  Irish  people  could  thereby  be  avoided.  This  was 
the  policy  of  conciliation  which  the  government  had 
been  steadily  employing.  It  is  difficult  to  judge. 
Perhaps  it  was  mistaken  weakness,  for  it  did  not  win 
and  could  not  frighten  the  most  radical.  Perhaps  it 
was  wisdom,  for  it  seems  to  have  done  well  with  most 

6  Skinnider,  p.  224, 
P  Ibid.,  p.  250, 


374    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

of  the  Irish  people.  But  it  should  always  be  remem- 
bered that  competent  observers  thought  that  one  cause 
of  England's  failure  in  Ireland  in  1916  was  this  too 
great  gentleness  and  unwillingness  to  offend  any- 
body. It  should  be  remembered  particularly  because 
there  have  been  so  many  statements  to  the  effect  that 
England  made  a  mistake  characteristic  of  harsh  and 
dull-witted  people,  when  she  punished  the  leaders  of 
the  insurrection  by  imprisonment  and  death.  She 
might  better  have  afforded,  say  these  critics,  to  have 
let  them  go  free.  Perhaps  that  is  true  also :  it  is  very 
difficult  to  know;  but  at  all  events  she  was  despised 
and  condemned  by  Sinn  Feiners  when  to  others  she 
seemed  lenient  and  weak.  All  the  time  Sinn  Fein 
leaders  redoubled  their  activities,  drilled  their  follow- 
ers, filling  their  speeches  and  papers  with  seditious 
utterances  and  disloyal  boasts.  But  the  British  peo- 
ple were  facing  Germany,  absorbed  in  the  giant  strug- 
gle. They  stood  with  back  to  Ireland,  and  gave  little 
heed,  it  would  seem,  to  things  in  the  other  island. 

On  the  night  of  April  20  a  German  auxiliary 
cruiser,  disguised  as  a  merchant  ship,  accompanied  by 
a  submarine,  attempted  to  land  arms  and  ammunition 
in  Ireland.  The  ship  was  sunk,  and  Sir  Roger  Case- 
ment, who  had  been  brought  over  from  Germany,  was 
made  prisoner.  Once  he  had  been  distinguished  in 
the  British  consular  service,  afterwards  he  was  an  ac- 
tive organizer  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  and  more  re- 
cently he  had  been  in  Germany  trying  to  get  assist- 
ance and  persuade  Irish  prisoners  to  enlist  in  the 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          375 

German  service.  Probably  a  rising  had  been  ar- 
ranged to  come  shortly  after  this  attempted  landing, 
because  four  days  later,  on  the  Monday  following 
Easter,  a  rebellion  began  in  Dublin  and  spread  to 
various  parts  of  the  island. 

People  awoke  in  Dublin  that  morning  and  learned 
with  amazement  that  an  insurrection  had  begun  in 
their  midst.  The  Sinn  Feiners  had  seized  the  city. 
Probably  substantial  German  assistance  was  hoped 
for  by  some  of  the  more  ignorant  and  enthusiastic, 
for  on  the  next  day  wild  rumors  went  about,  that 
German  submarines  were  swarming  in  the  sea,  that 
the  Germans  had  landed  in  three  places,  fifteen  thou- 
sand in  one  body,  that  German  warships  had  de- 
feated the  British  navy,  and  that  transports  were 
rushing  towards  Ireland.  Local  arrangements  had 
been  very  carefulty  planned,  though  the  leaders  seem 
to  have  had  no  just  conception  of  the  larger  elements 
of  such  a  task,  unless  it  be  thought  that  they  delib- 
erately embarked  upon  a  military  enterprise  which 
they  knew  to  be  hopeless.  They  seized  the  beautiful 
little  park,  St.  Stephen's  Green,  in  the  center  of  the 
city,  a  position  untenable,  and  made  an  attempt  upon 
Dublin  Castle  which  failed;  but  they  succeeded  in 
occupying  the  Post  Office,  where  they  severed  com- 
munication by  telegraph  and  telephone,  many  of  the 
houses  in  the  streets  nearby,  and  some  strong  build- 
ings in  other  parts  of  the  city.  They  were  well  sup- 
plied with  firearms  and  ammunition,  and  easily  re- 
pulsed the  first  efforts  to  dislodge  them. 


376    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Shortly  after  noon  on  Easter  Monday  an  Irish 
Republic  was  proclaimed.  Padraic  Pearse,  school- 
master, a  leader  of  Sinn  Fein,  visionary  and  idealist, 
but  strong  in  belief  in  his  cause,  was  chosen  president 
and  commander-in-chief.  His  character  remains  an 
enigma  except  to  those  most  closely  associated  with 
him ;  some  have  wondered  how  such  a  man  could  have 
been  chosen  to  lead  a  rebellion,  others  have  seen  in 
him  the  most  fitting  one  to  preside.  Fate  had  touched 
him  and  called  him  forth,  with  but  a  few  days  more 
in  the  world.  In  those  days  he  went  forward  with  fine 
nobility  and  high  exaltation,  as  one  who  scarcely  walks 
among  mortal  men.  The  proclamation  is  fantastic 
or  splendid,  according  as  one's  sympathies  go.  In 
the  name  of  God,  Ireland  summoned  her  children  to 
the  flag.  Her  manhood,  trained  in  the  Irish  Republi- 
can Brotherhood,  the  Irish  Volunteers,  and  the  Irish 
Citizen  Army,  supported  by  exiles  in  America  and  by 
gallant  allies  in  Europe,  had  waited  resolutely  for 
the  moment,  and  now  struck  in  full  confidence  of  vic- 
tory. "We  declare  the  right  of  the  people  of  Ireland 
to  the  ownership  of  Ireland,  and  to  the  unfettered  con- 
trol of  Irish  destinies,  to  be  sovereign  and  indefeasi- 
ble. The  long  usurpation  of  that  right  by  a  foreign 
people  and  government  has  not  extinguished  the  right, 
nor  can  it  be  extinguished  except  by  the  destruction 
of  the  Irish  people."  In  every  generation  that  peo- 
ple had  asserted  their  right  to  national  freedom  and 
sovereignty.  Now  they  asserted  it  again,  and  pro- 
claimed the  Irish  Republic  as  a  sovereign  and  inde- 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION         377 

pendent  state.  This  new  Republic  claimed  the  al- 
legiance of  every  man  and  woman  in  Ireland.  It 
guaranteed  civil  and  religious  equality.  The  national 
government  to  be  set  up  later  on  was  to  be  "repre- 
sentative of  the  whole  people  of  Ireland  and  elected 
by  the  suffrages  of  all  her  men  and  women."  The 
blessing  of  Most  High  God  was  invoked.  Some  say 
that  this  document  was  read  by  Pearse,  others  that 
it  was  read  by  Joseph  Plunkett.  The  reading  was  at 
the  base  of  Nelson's  Pillar,  to  a  crowd  of  women  and 
children  and  rabble  who  gave  it  scant  attention  and 
knew  little,  perhaps,  of  its  meaning.  It  was  pro- 
claimed with  deep  emotion,  but  they  turned  from  it 
at  once  to  plunder  the  shops  nearby, — one  more  in- 
stance of  the  sordid  tragedy  very  often  mingled  with 
the  sublimer  things  of  this  life. 

Next  day  the  Republicans  were  easily  driven  from 
St.  Stephen's  Green,  not  to  be  held  because  they  had 
failed  to  get  possession  of  the  Shelbourne  Hotel 
nearby,  from  the  roof  of  which  their  position  was 
commanded  by  machine-gun  fire.  Nevertheless,  they 
were  strongly  established  in  the  Post  Office,  the  City 
Hall,  the  Law  Courts,  and  other  places,  and  although 
troops  were  now  arriving  from  north  Ireland  and  over 
the  Channel  from  England,  the  rebels  could  not  be 
immediately  dislodged.  Meanwhile  small  risings  in 
several  other  places  in  Ireland  collapsed  almost  at 
once.  Everywhere  the  mass  of  the  people  regarded 
the  affair  with  indifference,  or  strongly  condemned  it 
as  a  mad  and  rash  enterprise  hopeless  from  the  first, 


378          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

which  could  only  bring  disaster  to  Ireland.  Evi- 
dently Germany  could  not  give  help,  if  she  would,  and 
it  was  afterwards  believed  that  she  had  small  inten- 
tion of  trying  to  do  it,  and  was  merely  using  Ireland 
as  a  tool.  German  warships  did  dash  out  to  bom- 
bard some  of  the  English  coast  towns,  but  this  brought 
no  assistance  to  the  Irish  Republic. 

It  is  evident  now  that  the  insurrection  could  not 
succeed,  but  in  the  uncertainty  and  dangers  of  the 
moment  anything  seemed  possible;  and  the  British 
people,  hitherto  indifferent,  were  profoundly  moved 
and  alarmed.  Stern  measures  were  taken.  April  27 
martial  law  was  proclaimed  all  over  Ireland,  and  an 
English  commander  was  dispatched  from  London 
with  powers  superseding  all  others.  The  Irish  lead- 
ers in  the  House  of  Commons  were  greatly  dis- 
tressed. Mr.  Redmond  believed  that  the  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  the  Irish  people  regarded  the  whole 
thing  with  detestation  and  horror,  and  expressed  hope 
that  the  event  would  not  be  turned  into  a  political 
weapon  against  any  political  party.  He  was  right  in 
seeing  that  the  rebellion  coming  at  such  a  time  per- 
illed the  arduous  work  of  the  Nationalists,  and  might 
set  back  Ireland's  cause  as  the  murders  in  Phoenix 
Park  once  had  done.  Sir  Edward  Carson  said  he 
would  gladly  join  with  the  Nationalists  to  the  fullest 
extent  in  suppressing  the  rebels. 

Meanwhile  the  fighting  went  on.  The  fortunes  of 
the  Republic  steadily  waned  as  the  government,  re- 
covering from  the  surprise  of  the  moment,  brought 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          379 

all  of  its  power  into  action.  There  was  severe  fight- 
ing in  the  streets,  with  much  firing  from  the  roofs  of 
houses,  the  insurgents  going  from  one  house  to  an- 
other over  the  roofs,  using  this  means  of  communica- 
tion with  greatest  effect.  Gradually  their  outlying 
positions  were  carried,  not  without  losses  on  both 
sides.  The  rebels  bore  themselves  in  right  soldierly 
fashion,  and  fought  and  worked  with  good  discipline 
and  effect,  making  the  best  use  of  such  slender  re- 
sources as  they  had.  There  was  considerable  pillag- 
ing, but  it  was  by  the  baser  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion, in  no  way  connected  with  the  uprising,  but  quick 
to  seize  their  chance  in  the  confusion  of  the  moment. 

Friends  of  the  insurgents  estimate  that  by  Tuesday 
the  government  was  able  to  dispose  of  20,000  troops, 
while  the  rebels  had  but  1,100  men  in  Dublin,  where 
alone  they  were  able  to  hold  out  for  more  than  a  mo- 
ment. During  the  first  day,  hidden  in  houses  and 
strong  points  of  vantage,  they  had  kept  the  enemy  at 
bay.  But  on  Tuesday  the  authorities  brought  artil- 
lery into  action,  and  at  once  the  odds  became  hope- 
less. The  military  has  been  much  blamed  for  the 
bombardment  which  they  began.  Had  they  waited 
a  little  while,  the  insurgents,  surrounded  as  they  were 
in  their  general  headquarters  at  the  Dublin  Post  Of- 
fice and  some  buildings  nearby,  might  have  been 
forced  to  surrender  merely  by  cutting  off  the  munici- 
pal water  supply.  It  has  been  thought  also  that  the 
clergy  might  have  intervened  and  stayed  the  horrors 
that  ensued.  Certainly,  as  we  see  it  now,  it  would 


380    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

have  been  well  to  wait  and  allow  the  rebellion  to  col- 
lapse in  ridicule  and  contempt;  but  the  general  sit- 
uation being  what  it  was  at  the  time,  it  probably 
seemed  to  the  British  commander  that  any  delay  would 
be  dangerous.  A  book  which  stanchly  advocated  the 
cause  of  the  rebellion  says:  "The  artillery  wrought 
havoc  upon  havoc,  but  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  else 
the  insurgents  were  to  be  suppressed."  7 

So  began  a  systematic  bombardment  with  military 
and  naval  guns  of  the  quarter  held  by  the  rebels,  in 
the  course  of  which  whole  rows  of  houses  were  burned 
or  levelled  with  the  ground.  That  fine  thoroughfare 
which  visitors  know  as  Sackville  Street  and  which 
Nationalists  have  called  after  O'Connell,  became  a 
heap  of  ruins.  Gradually  the  snipers  were  overcome, 
and  the  cordon  of  troops  drawn  ever  tighter  about  the 
insurgents,  until  presently  their  principal  refuge,  the 
Post  Office,  came  under  fire  of  the  artillery  and  was 
largely  destroyed.  In  the  last  days  of  April  the  re- 
volt was  broken.  Many  of  the  rebels  surrendered, 
after  holding  out  until  ammunition  was  exhausted. 
There  were  terrible  scenes  in  the  center  of  the  city; 
there  was  the  roar  of  cannon,  there  was  the  rattle 
of  machine-guns.  Fire  added  its  horror.  The  Ho- 
tel Metropole  and  many  buildings  down  Abbey  Street 
were  burned.  Twenty  great  business  establishments 
and  many  smaller  places  took  fire,  and  at  last  the 
Post  Office.  All  the  while  from  the  windows  and 
the  roofs  and  from  such  barricades  as  remained  the 

7  The  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916,  pp.  102,  103. 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          381 

rebels  shot  at  their  foes.  On  the  afternoon  of  April 
29,  with  ammunition  gone,  with  his  followers  sur- 
rounded and  hopelessly  outnumbered,  Padraic  Pearse 
surrendered  unconditionally,  and  bade  the  Republi- 
can forces  lay  down  their  arms.  The  other  leaders 
then  yielded  also,  and  by  Saturday  afternoon  all  was 
over,  except  that  for  a  day  or  so  longer  an  occasional 
sniper  continued  to  fire  from  some  position  which  he 
had  taken. 

Terrible  was  the  ruin  and  havoc.  Sackville  Street, 
the  finest  in  the  city,  had  been  ruined.  There  had 
been  many  fires,  and  the  damage  was  estimated  at 
more  than  £2,000,000.  Most  of  the  ruin  had  fallen 
upon  people  in  no  wise  connected  with  the  uprising, 
and  entirely  innocent  of  the  doings  of  Sinn  Fein.  "In 
places  the  city  looked  like  Antwerp  during  the  siege, 
or  London  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Belgian  refugees."  8 
"The  finest  part  of  our  city,"  said  one,  "has  been 
blown  to  smithereens,  and  burned  into  ashes.  Sol- 
diers amongst  us  who  have  served  abroad  say  that  the 
ruin  of  this  quarter  is  more  complete  than  anything 
they  have  seen  at  Ypres,  than  anything  they  have 
seen  anywhere  in  France  or  Flanders."  For  a  while 
the  sentiment  in  Dublin  and  in  Ireland  was  bitter 
against  those  whose  rebellion  had  brought  this  about. 

A  few  days  later  Mr.  Birrell,  Chief  Secretary  for 
Ireland,  made  his  statement  in  the  House  of  Com- 

s  Redmond- Ho  ward,  p.  123. 

» James    Stephens,    The   Insurrection   in   Dublin    (New   York,    1916), 
p.  96. 


382    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

mons.  He  confessed  that  he  had  falsely  estimated 
the  Sinn  Fein  movement  in  so  far  that  he  had  not 
thought  possible  an  uprising  like  that  which  had  come. 
He  said  that  his  error,  with  all  its  great  and  terrible 
consequences,  had  not  arisen  from  lack  of  anxiety  and 
care.  He  had  subordinated  everything  to  keeping 
unbroken  the  front  of  Ireland  in  this  war.  He  had 
failed,  and  he  gave  now  his  resignation,  which,  of 
course,  was  accepted.  Mr.  Redmond,  who  confessed 
that  he  also  had  not  appreciated  the  dangers  from 
Sinn  Fein,  declared  that  Mr.  Birrell  had  conferred 
many  benefits  upon  Ireland;  and  Sir  Edward  Carson 
asserted  that  the  tragedy  had  arisen  from  the  Secre- 
tary's great  desire  to  preserve  national  unity.  Such 
were  the  difficulties  of  Irish  administration.  The 
Chief  Secretary,  a  humane  and  noble  man,  had  meant 
well  and  done  well,  and  yet  failed  completely,  and  it 
seemed  now  that  his  failure  had  come  principally  from 
leniency  and  weakness. 

The  government,  which  may  before  have  been  idle 
and  supine,  now  proceeded  to  severest  measures,  and 
a  rigorous  inquisition  was  begun  for  the  apprehen- 
sion of  all  of  the  rebels.  On  May  3rd,  three  of  the 
principal  leaders  and  signatories  of  the  proclamation 
of  independence,  Pearse,  his  old  associate  Mac- 
Donagh,  and  another,  were  shot  after  trial  by  court 
martial.  Pearse,  gentle  and  knightly  during  the 
struggle,  met  his  end  bravely.  To  his  mother  in  the- 
last  hours  of  his  life,  he  wrote  a  beautiful  letter. 
"This  is  the  death  I  should  have  asked  for  if  God  had 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          383 

given  me  the  choice  of  all  deaths — to  die  a  soldier's 
death  for  Ireland  and  for  freedom.  We  have  done 
right."  10  Then  began  what  adherents  of  Sinn  Fein 
have  described  as  a  reign  of  terror.  "Ah,"  says  the 
writer  who  boasted  of  the  audacity  of  the  Fianna  boys 
and  the  daring  exploits  of  Madame,  "how  the  stories 
of  Belgian  atrocities  .  .  .  paled  beside  this  one  fort- 
night in  Dublin !  .  .  .  Stories  of  atrocities  poured  into 
our  ears  when  the  Germans  invaded  Belgium.  Now 
we  had  to  hear  them  from  our  own  people,  and  now 
we  had  to  believe  them.  They  were  stories  as  cruel 
as  any  heard  since  the  days  of  the  Island  Magee  mas- 
sacre." n  She  tells  little  to  support  this  assertion; 
and  she  might  have  pondered  for  a  moment  on  what 
would  probably  have  been  done  by  the  Germans  to 
avenge  such  a  rising,  by  reflecting  upon  the  events  of 
Dinant  and  Louvain.  To  many  others  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  government  have  seemed  merely  stern  and 
just  retribution.  For  a  while  courts  martial  sat  al- 
most every  day.  Thirteen  of  the  leaders  were  shot, 
and  some  forty -five  sentenced  to  prison.  The  Count- 
ess Markievicz  was  sentenced  to  death,  but  this  was 
commuted  to  penal  servitude  for  life.  Of  the  police, 
the  constabulary,  and  the  soldiers  employed  in  sup- 
pressing the  rebellion  124  were  killed,  and  the  total 
casualties  were  more  than  500.  Early  in  May  Mr. 
Dillon,  the  well-known  Irish  leader,  declared  that 
there  were  secret  shootings  and  imprisonments  in  the 

10  The  Irish  Rebellion.of  1916,  pp.  279,  280. 

11  Skinnider,  pp.  166,  167,  174,  175. 


384    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

barracks  in  Ireland,  and  that  Dublin  was  maddened 
by  the  rumors.  He  said  that  these  things  were  being 
concealed  from  Mr.  Asquith,  and  that  the  soldiers  of 
the  British  government  were  washing  out  in  a  sea  of 
blood  the  life-work  of  the  Nationalist  leaders.  Mr. 
Asquith  replied  that  thirteen  had  been  put  to  death, 
and  that  two  were  to  follow;  that  was  all. 

There  was  one  incident  which  could  certainly  not 
be  defended,  and  which,  when  it  came  to  be  widely 
known,  created  a  very  bad  impression  not  only  in 
Ireland,  but  in  England,  and  the  United  States. 
April  26,  Mr.  Sheehy  Skeffington,  aiDublin  journalist, 
had  been  shot,  as  it  afterwards  appeared,  without  the 
knowledge  of  any  military  tribunal.  Skeffington 
was  one  of  those  strong  but  gentle  idealists,  of  child- 
like simplicity  and  unfailing  enthusiasm  for  all  that 
he  believed  to  be  right,  sometimes  annoying,  some- 
times very  lovable,  inspired  with  zeal  to  help  the 
weak  and  oppressed,  pacifist,  advocate  of  women's 
rights,  very  radical,  intensely  Irish,  an  active  and  able 
man.  When  the  war  broke  out  he  wrote  against  Irish- 
men helping  England  in  her  war,  and  asked  what 
England's  triumph  could  bring  save  the  strengthen- 
ing of  the  power  which  exploited  Ireland ;  and  he  was 
very  active  in  speaking  against  recruiting.  None  the 
less  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  rebellion,  for  he 
abhorred  all  warfare;  and  it  was  known  that  he  had 
taken  some  part  in  efforts  to  stop  looting  during  the 
confusion  of  the  struggle.  Walking  through  the 
streets  of  the  city  unarmed,  he  was  seized  at  the  order 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION         385 

of  a  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  and  taken  to  the  bar- 
racks. That  night  he  was  shot.  Whether  this  was 
done  to  him  as  a  hostage,  and  in  reprisal  for  firing 
upon  soldiers,  or  whether  the  captain  was  insane  at 
the  time,  as  the  court  martial  which  tried  him  decided, 
is  not  very  clear.  Unfortunately  every  country  has 
some  junkers,  and  it  has  been  said  that  often  England 
contrives  to  export  them  to  Ireland — it  may  have  been 
so  in  this  case.  At  all  events,  the  widow  of  the  mur- 
dered man,  coming  to  the  United  States  at  a  critical 
time,  and  telling  her  pathetic  story  wherever  she  could, 
did  not  a  little  to  embitter  the  minds  of  people  against 
British  conduct  in  Ireland. 

Actually  not  many  of  the  leaders  were  punished 
severely,  and  practically  none  of  their  followers;  for 
after  detention  and  imprisonment,  they  were  dis- 
charged, when  an  amnesty  was  proclaimed  in  the  fol- 
lowing year.  But  now  one  of  those  things  happened, 
which  illustrates  the  complexities  of  Irish  character 
and  exhibits  very  well  the  difficulties  which  beset  Irish 
administration  as  things  are  at  present.  Before  the 
rebellion  the  government  had  been  very  lenient,  far 
too  lenient,  perhaps.  Under  the  direction  of  the  Chief 
Secretary  little  notice  had  been  taken  of  the  activities 
of  extremists,  and  Sinn  Feiners  had  been  allowed  to 
go  about  openly  uttering  sedition  and  drilling  armed 
bodies  of  men.  It  is  true,  this  same  thing  had  been 
permitted  in  Ulster,  and  Irishmen  often  declared  that 
there  was  the  beginning  of  the  trouble;  but  many 
Englishmen  saw  some  difference  between  two  armed 


386    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

bodies,  one  of  which  prepared  to  resist  separation 
from  Great  Britain,  the  other  to  make  that  separation 
complete.  At  all  events,  Sinn  Fein  had  been  allowed 
to  go  much  its  own  way,  the  authorities,  as  they  con- 
fessed, dreading  lest  coercion  be  the  signal  for  serious 
trouble.  In  the  terrible  hour,  when  the  Empire  was 
engaged  in  a  death  grapple  with  its  enemy,  Sinn 
Feiners  had  set  up  a  Republic  and  sought  to  sever 
the  vital  bonds  of  the  Empire.  They  were  quickly 
suppressed,  it  is  true,  but  not  before  many  soldiers 
and  civilians  had  been  wounded  or  killed,  a  great 
deal  of  property  had  been  plundered  by  the  rabble 
of  the  gutter,  and  the  fairest  part  of  the  city  entirely 
ruined.  Now  the  danger  was  over,  but  it  had  seemed 
a  horrible  one,  with  awful  possibilities  stretching  out 
from  it.  In  the  midst  of  normal  conditions,  and  with 
no  new  oppression  and  tyranny  to  justify  them,  after 
some  years  of  benefit  and  conciliation  on  the  part  of 
the  authorities,  and  at  a  time  when  Home  Rule  seemed 
at  last  to  have  been  gained,  the  Sinn  Feiners  struck, 
and  the  events  of  the  week  had  left  death  and  suffer- 
ing and  desolation.  Britain  had  trusted,  and  found 
herself  deceived.  In  the  uttermost  crisis  she  was 
struck  from  behind.  The  waters  around  Ireland  are 
of  fundamental  importance  to  her  safety,  and  the 
enemy  had  been  invited  to  enter  them.  What  should 
she  do  ?  These  men  had  staked  all  and  lost ;  they  had 
taken  their  chance;  justly  their  lives  were  forfeit. 
Should  the  law  be  meted  out  to  them?  Or  should 
England  do  what  English-speaking  peoples  had  done 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          387 

not  seldom  before  in  the  midst  of  perplexity  and  trou- 
ble, pardon  those  who  had  risen  in  rebellion?  Should 
she  be  stern,  and  terrify  the  lawless,  or  win  by  for- 
bearance and  mildness?  Well  might  her  leaders 
think  after  Easter  Week  that  forbearance  was  vain. 
So,  Britain  was  stern  at  first,  and  some  Irishmen 
were  put  to  death.  In  this  she  did  no  wrong;  but  it 
may  be  that  she  was  not  wise.  I  am  not  certain,  and 
I  see  not  how  others  can  be,  that  if  Britain  had  freely 
pardoned  Pearse  and  all  his  fellows,  they  would  have 
shown  any  gratitude,  or  that  she  would  have  gained 
aught  thereby.  But  this  much  is  certain,  that  the 
greatest  success  of  Sinn  Fein  came  from  the  death  of 
its  leaders.  Their  cause  had  failed  in  such  manner 
that  it  was  bound  to  be  discredited  for  a  while.  It 
is  even  possible  that  it  might  have  died  out  in  con- 
tempt, though  it  is  doubtful  whether  that  would  have 
happened.  But  now  they  who  had  been  violent  ex- 
tremists with  a  small  following  became  martyrs,  as  it 
seemed,  for  the  Irish  people;  Ireland  gave  her  heart 
to  them  and  their  cause;  and  it  was  not  very  long 
before  Sinn  Fein  was  the  dominant  force  in  the  poli- 
tics of  the  island. 

As  the  warm  and  passionate  heart  of  the  Irish 
turned  in  wonder  and  love  to  the  men  who  died  for  the 
Easter  insurrection,  several  things  became  clear. 
They  might  have  been  foolish  and  mistaken,  they  were 
often  violent  and  extreme,  their  policy  might  be  nar- 
row and  their  ends  harmful,  but  there  was  nothing 
mean  nor  selfish  about  some  of  these  men.  Their 


388          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ideals  had  been  high  and  pure;  they  were  altogether 
above  considerations  of  their  own  welfare;  perhaps 
they  saw  that  the  enterprise  was  hopeless,  and  gave 
themselves  in  sacrifice  for  Ireland.  None  of  the 
rebels  had  plundered  or  stolen,  none  of  them  had 
sought  any  personal  profit.  Like  the  best  of  the  suf- 
fragettes, they  had  simply  a  great  cause  at  heart. 
They  loved  Ireland,  and  devoted  themselves  gladly. 
Martyrs,  then,  and  heroes  they  became.  To  many 
Irish  men  and  women  they  were  the  latest  successors 
of  O'Neill,  Wolf  Tone,  Emmet,  Mitchel,  and  a  long 
line  of  sufferers  for  Ireland's  sake. 

And  what  was  the  cause  for  which  they  had  so 
highly  dared  all?  The  revival  of  the  fine,  strong, 
beautiful,  and  noble  Ireland  which  they  saw  in  their 
visions,  and  had  striven  so  hard  to  reconstruct  in  their 
lives;  with  no  accepting  of  gifts  at  the  hand  of  the 
British  government,  and  no  taking  of  any  half -meas- 
ure of  Irish  nationality.  In  the  name  of  God  and 
the  dead  generations  of  old  they  had  called  the  chil- 
dren of  Ireland  to  arise.  "We  declare  the  right  of 
the  people  of  Ireland  ...  to  the  unfettered  control 
of  Irish  destinies."  An  Irish  nation,  an  Ireland  all 
for  the  Irish  people,  a  new  Ireland  in  which  the  Irish 
might  be  all  themselves,  strong,  glorious,  fine,  and 
free,  like  the  bright  chieftains  of  ancient  songs,  that 
was  the  dream  of  the  noblest  of  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders. 
English  domination  made  that  impossible,  and  they 
had  tried  to  strike  off  English  control  when  they 
could,  Home  Rule,  they  thought,  would  have  been 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION         389 

a  weak  compromise,  leaving  the  best  of  their  scheme 
unaccomplished;  so  they  would  have  none  of  it,  and 
had  opposed  it  with  words  that  seemed  violent  and 
brutal.  Narrow  they  were,  they  could  not  see  the 
other  and  greater  things  of  this  world;  and  foolish 
most  people  outside  of  Ireland  will  think  them.  But 
in  some  sense  they  had  given  their  lives  for  a  people 
quick  to  pity,  and  warm  to  worship  those  who  have 
suffered  for  them.  And  so  Sinn  Fein  in  the  death  of 
its  leaders  accomplished  that  which  it  might  never  have 
done  if  the  leaders  had  continued  to  live.  *  'People  will 
say  hard  things  of  us  now,"  wrote  Pearse,  "but  later 
on  they  will  praise  us."  12  And  that  was  very  true. 

Your  dream  had  left  me  numb  and  cold 

But  yet  my  spirit  rose  in  pride, 
Refashioning  in  burnished  gold 

The  images  of  those  who  died, 
Or  were  shut  in  the  penal  cell — 

Here  's  to  you  Pearse,  your  dream,  not  mine, 
But  yet  the  thought — for  this  you  fell — 

Turns  all  life's  water  into  wine. 

I  listened  to  much  talk  from  you, 

Thomas  MacDonagh,  and  it  seemed 
The  words  were  idle,  but  they  grew 

To  nobleness,  by  death  redeemed. 
Life  cannot  utter  things  more  great 

Than  life  can  meet  with  sacrifice, 
High  words  were  equalled  by  just  fate, 

You  paid  the  price,  you  paid  the  price.13 

12  The  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916,  p.  280. 

13  George  Russell,  "Salutation":  ibid.,  p.  3. 


390          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

The  causes  of  this  rebellion  have  been  right  wisely 
summed  up  by  those  who  have  studied  the  thing.  The 
Royal  Commission  appointed  to  inquire  reported  that 
the  main  cause  was  the  lawlessness  which  had  been  al- 
lowed to  grow  up  unchecked,  and  the  weakness  of  the 
government  in  desiring  at  all  costs  to  avoid  any  trou- 
ble. Sheehy  Skeffington,  in  a  letter  written  just  be- 
fore the  catastrophe,  declared  that  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers, and  the  armed  workingmen  in  the  Irish  Citizen 
Army  were  well  organized  and  conscious  of  their 
strength,  and  determined  not  to  allow  their  arms  to 
be  taken  away  from  them  or  brook  any  interference 
with  their  organizations.  He  said  also,  what  others 
have  said,  that  there  was  going  on  in  the  government 
circles  of  Ireland  a  bitter  struggle  between  those  forces 
led  by  Mr.  Birrell,  who  wanted  peace,  and  the  mili- 
tarists, who  were  determined  to  suppress  the  armed 
bodies  and  seize  their  leaders.  A  few  days  before  the 
revolt  a  Sinn  Feiner  said:  "There  is  a  most  tre- 
mendous battle  going  on  at  the  present  moment  at  the 
Castle,  we  understand,  between  General  Friend  and 
Augustine  Birrell — in  other  words,  between  the  mili- 
tary and  the  civil  authorities — and  everything  depends 
upon  that  issue."  14  As  conditions  were  in  Ireland 
attempted  coercion  could  easily  lead  to  an  outburst. 
Now  on  April  19  the  extremists  got  knowledge  of  a 
document,  which  the  government  afterwards  declared 
to  be  a  forgery,  purporting  to  direct  the  arrest  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  and  the  Sinn  Fein 

i*  Redmond-Howard,  p.  99. 


391 

Council  and  other  bodies,  so  the  leaders  felt  that  all  of 
their  plans  were  about  to  be  ruined.  Accordingly, 
they  finished  their  preparations,  and  the  rebellion  be- 
gan. In  the  minds  of  many  this  was  the  most 
immediate  cause:  the  probable  intention  of  the  au- 
thorities to  disarm  Sinn  Fein  and  the  affiliated  organ- 
izations, something  which  they  could  not  endure  when 
they  thought  of  the  government's  indulgence  with  re- 
spect to  the  followers  of  John  Redmond  and  of  Sir 
Edward  Carson. 

A  greater  but  more  remote  cause  was  the  growth  of 
a  new  spirit  in  Ireland.  Politicians  and  people  still 
looked  at  the  old  order  without  realizing  that  a  new 
one  was  silently  displacing  it.  Ireland  seemed  di- 
vided between  the  Nationalists  and  the  Unionists,  and 
strong  forces  they  were;  but  something  else  was  tak- 
ing possession  of  Irish  hearts.  Redmond  and  his  as- 
sociates had  long  led  the  most  prominent  party,  and 
had  perfected  their  organization  so  that  it  ran  very 
smoothly.  Jobs  were  got  and  positions  secured 
through  the  influence  of  those  who  controlled  the  An- 
cient Order  of  Hibernians  and  the  working  of  the  Na- 
tionalist Party.  In  the  conduct  of  this  organization 
there  was  doubtless  much  that  seemed  objectionable: 
much  that  is  inevitable  and  even  seems  necessary  in 
political  management,  except  where  there  is  a  very 
high  level  of  interest  and  intelligence  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  electorate,  but  which  the  purer  and  more 
ardent  as  well  as  the  extremer  and  more  violent  will 
regard  with  impatience.  With  all  this  Sinn  Fein 


392    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

would  have  and  was  allowed  to  have  little  to  do. 
Moreover,  it  breathed  deeply  in  a  fresh  and  new  po- 
litical atmosphere.  It  regarded  the  Nationalist  pol- 
icy as  weak  and  as  a  foolish  compromise:  how  with  Mr. 
Redmond's  Home  Rule  was  there  to  be  an  Ireland 
free  as  they  dreamed  about  and  altogether  for  the 
Irish  people?  And  just  in  proportion  as  their  teach- 
ings prevailed,  so  was  the  Nationalist  influence  being 
undermined.  Unseen  some  of  its  foundations  were 
crumbling  away.  How  far  this  had  gone  was  not  yet 
known,  and  the  British  government  relied  thoroughly 
upon  the  prospect  of  Home  Rule  and  the  power  of 
the  Nationalist  Party  to  control  the  Irish  situation. 
Both  Britain  and  the  Nationalists  were  surprised  and 
mistaken. 

Another  cause  of  the  outbreak  was  the  develop- 
ment in  Dublin  of  a  radical  labor  movement,  which 
had  grown  largely  because  of  the  terrible  condition  in 
which  the  poorer  workingmen  lived,  crowded,  a  great 
many  of  them,  in  single  rooms  in  wretched  and  filthy 
tenements,  working  for  starvation  wages,  with  hope- 
less outlook,  and,  unlike  the  rural  laborers  in  the  con- 
gested districts,  not  helped  by  the  government  and 
their  cause  not  espoused  by  any  of  the  great  political 
parties.  They  had  therefore  developed  a  party  of 
their  own,  led  by  Jim  Larkin,  and,  after  the  disastrous 
strike  in  Dublin  in  1913,  a  syndicalist  Labor  move- 
ment, with  the  object  of  obtaining  the  common  own- 
ership of  Ireland  by  all  the  Irish.  While  the  spirit 
of  Sinn  Fein  was  stirring  up  the  minds  of  men  to 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          393 

seek  drastic  changes,  the  Irish  syndicalists,  burning 
with  a  sense  of  their  wrongs  and  filled  with  the  most 
radical  ideas  as  to  how  betterment  must  be  obtained, 
formed  the  Irish  Citizen  Army,  one  of  those  organiza- 
tions whose  arming  and  drilling  had  been  an  omen  of 
the  trouble  to  come.  During  the  Easter  Rebellion 
they  were  commanded  by  James  Connolly,  who  also 
acted  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  of  the  ill- 
fated  Republic.  As  Sinn  Fein  had  drawn  away  from 
the  Nationalist  Party  because  it  was  believed  that  the 
Nationalists  had  compromised  with  England  and  were 
about  to  accept  a  half  measure,  so  the  Irish  labor  or- 
ganization despised  John  Redmond  and  his  associates 
as  men  who  were  allied  with  the  capitalist  classes  ex- 
ploiting them.  Thus  the  Irish  rebellion  rested  pri- 
marily upon  the  support  of  political  and  economic  ex- 
tremists. 

There  were  yet  other  causes.  Undoubtedly  there 
was  fierce  opposition  to  enlisting  in  the  British  army, 
and  it  began  to  seem  that  Irishmen  might  be  com- 
pelled to  serve  through  conscription.  This  opposition 
was  based  not  merely  on  dislike  of  Britain  and  aver- 
sion from  doing  anything  to  assist  her,  and  on  the  be- 
lief that  Irishmen  should  spend  their  lives  only  for 
Ireland,  but  also  to  some  extent  upon  a  hatred  of 
militarism,  since  some  of  these  men,  while  brave  and 
willing  to  fight  if  they  must,  had  none  the  less  strong 
pacifist  leanings.  Furthermore  the  rebellion  was  a 
protest  against  the  system  of  government  from  the 
Castle,  so  long  endured  and  so  greatly  despised.  Sinn 


394    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Fein  believed  that  now  the  more  malign  influences  in 
the  Castle  were  getting  an  ascendancy  about  to  be 
used  for  the  further  crushing  of  Irish  liberties  under 
plea  of  the  necessities  of  the  situation.  German  gold 
had  something  to  do  with  the  rising,  but  not  much,  it 
is  generally  believed.  Sinn  Fein  was  above  accept- 
ing bribes,  and  such  payments  as  were  made  seem  to 
have  been  made  to  encourage  the  discontented  to  do 
what  they  longed  to  do  when  they  could.  German 
persuasion  and  propaganda  doubtless  had  some  part, 
particularly  among  the  Irish  in  America,  who  in  turn 
influenced  their  brethren  in  Ireland;  but  however 
vicious  the  utterances  of  some  Irish-American  writers, 
and  however  active  the  Clan-na-Gael  seemed  to  be, 
German  influence  cannot  be  taken  as  one  of  the  major 
causes  of  the  rebellion :  the  purposes  of  Sinn  Fein  were 
in  no  wise  connected  with  Germany,  except  in  so  far 
as  some  German  help  might  be  got  to  achieve  them; 
and  they  would  have  used  any  power  for  that  purpose. 
As  for  Germany,  it  need  not  be  said  that  she  had  no 
real  sympathy  with  the  aspirations  of  Ireland  or  Sinn 
Fein,  for  such  aspirations  she  had  always  ruthlessty 
crushed.  But  Irish  independence  leaning  upon  Ger- 
many would  effectually  make  England  subservient  to 
greater  Germany,  and  so  she  used  these  Irishmen  for 
the  purpose  of  embarrassing  England.  Actually  Sir 
Roger  Casement,  who  after  his  capture  was  hanged 
as  a  traitor  in  England,  was  sent  to  certain  destruction 
by  the  Germans  with  whom  he  intrigued. 

Last  of  all,  one  of  the  causes  of  the  revolt  was  the 


THE  EASTER  REBELLION          395 

desire  of  Sinn  Fein  to  bring  the  subject  of  Irish  inde- 
pendence to  the  attention  of  the  world.  They  had  in 
mind,  perhaps,  something  like  what  inspired  Cavour 
long  before  to  send  Italian  soldiers  with  England  and 
France  to  the  Crimea,  in  order  that  these  powers 
might  later  help  him  to  get  the  claims  of  Italy  before 
a  European  Congress.  The  whole  world  was  in  the 
throes  of  great  changes  soon  to  be  wrought.  Na- 
tionalities were  to  be  recognized,  the  rights  of  small 
nations  upheld.  Pearse  and  MacDonagh  believed 
that  Ireland  was  gravely  wronged  in  not  having  com- 
plete independence.  "Their  sense  of  thwarted  na- 
tionality was  so  intense  that  they  could  not  see  Europe. 
And  Europe,  it  seemed,  had  forgotten  that  Ireland 
was  a  nation."  15  They  were  high  idealists,  and  from 
their  point  of  view  it  was  vitally  important  that  Irish- 
men should  not  seem  content  and  accept  Home  Rule, 
but  express  their  displeasure  so  that  it  could  not  be 
ignored,  and  then  get  their  case  before  some  great 
tribunal  to  be  settled.  The  mighty  issues,  the  awful 
moment,  the  uncertain  future,  might  make  men  forget, 
even  in  Ireland,  the  Irish  question  that  was  so  dear  to 
Sinn  Fein.  "It  seemed  that  the  mighty  wings  of 
the  empire  rushing  to  war  were  extinguishing  the 
Irish  lamp."  16  So  they  rose  in  rebellion  to  hold  up 
before  men  the  ideals  of  Gaelic  Ireland,  no  matter 
what  perished  in  the  meantime. 

is  Leslie,  The  Irish  Issue,  pp.  89,  90. 
irf.,  p.  90. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   HOME  RULE   QUESTION   DURING   THE   WAR 

We  stand  at  the  door  of  the  Empire  and  we  ask  admission ; 
we  pledge  you  our  fealty  as  a  nation,  and  our  loyalty  as  men. 
We  seek  to  blot  out  even  the  memory  of  ancient  wrongs  and 
ancient  miseries,  and  ancient  causes  of  heart-burning  and 
discontent.  We  ask  to-day  to  be  allowed  to  cross  the 
threshold  into  an  Empire — our,  remember,  by  right  of 
service,  as  much  as  yours — where  the  genius  of  our  people, 
the  valour  of  our  soldiers,  and  the  fidelity  of  our  race  might, 
possibly,  prove  to  be  one  of  your  greatest  assets  in  the 
vicissitudes  and  the  dangers  of  an  unknown  future. 

Speech  of  John  Redmond,  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

November  14,  1913. 

WHEN  the  war  broke  out  the  Home  Rule  con- 
troversy had  reached  its  most  critical  stage. 
In  accordance  with  the  Parliament  Act  of  1911,  the 
Home  Rule  Bill  would  automatically  become  law  at 
the  end  of  the  session,  but  while  most  of  Gaelic  Ireland 
was  looking  forward  to  the  operation  of  the  new 
statute  with  eager  anticipation,  many  of  the  men  of 
Ulster  were  armed  to  resist  it,  and  threatened  to  op- 
pose it  with  force.  The  Liberals  had  introduced  an 
Amending  Bill  which  provided  for  the  temporary  ex- 
clusion of  the  Ulster  counties  desiring  it ;  but  what  the 
Ulster  Volunteers  wanted  was  permanent  exclusion, 

396 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      397 

and  the  Amending  Bill  was  transformed  by  the  House 
of  Lords  so  as  to  provide  for  the  permanent  exclusion 
of  all  Ulster.  The  Commons  would  certainly  have 
rejected  this,  since  the  Nationalists  would  have  naught 
to  do  with  it.  The  king  had  called  a  conference  at 
Buckingham  Palace,  but  the  representatives  had  de- 
parted with  nothing  accomplished.  Well  might  Ger- 
many believe  that  Britain,  if  she  desired  to  enter  the 
war,  would  be  paralyzed  by  civil  commotion  in  Ire- 
land. Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  in  politics  a  moderate 
Unionist,  but  above  all  things  a  thoughtful  Irish 
patriot,  at  this  moment  published  a  memorial,  The 
Better  Way:  An  Appeal  to  Ulster  not  to  Desert  Ire- 
land, in  which  he  implored  Unionists  to  give  Home 
Rule  a  chance.  Let  them  withdraw  afterwards  if 
they  would,  but  enter  the  new  system  now.  Then 
came  the  crash  of  the  war. 

At  once  the  political  parties  declared  a  truce. 
Further  considering  of  Irish  legislation  was  postponed 
to  such  time  as  the  government  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Opposition  might  determine.  But  by  September  Mr. 
Asquith  was  resolved  to  take  up  Irish  matters  again. 
He  announced  that  at  the  end  of  the  session  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  would  be  law,  and  that  in  the  session  fol- 
lowing an  Amending  Bill  would  be  passed  before 
Home  Rule  went  into  effect.  The  Opposition  de- 
clared this  a  breach  of  faith,  and  said  that  Ulster  was 
being  betrayed.  Liberals  and  Nationalists  insisting 
that  Ulster  was  not  to  be  coerced,  asserted  that  Home 
Rule  was  necessary  if  the  ardor  of  Irishmen  for  the 


398    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

war  was  not  to  be  dampened,  and  an  unfavorable  im- 
pression created  abroad.  Irishmen,  they  said,  would 
enlist  for  service  if  Home  Rule  were  given.  Union- 
ists were  firm  in  maintaining  that  Home  Rule  and  the 
Amending  Bill  should  come  in  together.  September 
19,  the  Government  of  Ireland  Bill  received  the  as- 
sent of  the  king.  It  was  not  to  go  into  effect  so  long 
as  the  war  continued.  A  week  later  Mr.  Asquith  ad- 
dressed a  great  meeting  in  Dublin.  He  spoke  of  what 
was  imperilled  by  the  war,  and  asked  that  Irishmen 
take  the  part  which  they  should.  Mr.  Redmond,  who 
had  already  spoken  so  gallantly  in  London,  said: 
"You  have  kept  faith  with  Ireland ;  Ireland  will  keep 
faith  with  you."  * 

Redmond  had  already  issued  a  manifesto  calling 
upon  the  people  to  form  an  Irish  Brigade  for  service 
at  the  front.  But  difficulties  began  now.  The 
strength  of  Sinn  Fein  was  not  known  yet,  but  Sinn 
Feiners  redoubled  the  efforts  they  had  been  making 
to  prevent  recruiting,  and  enlistments  were  far  short 
of  what  was  expected.  In  May,  1915,  the  course  of 
the  war  made  the  formation  of  a  coalition  cabinet  ad- 
visable, and  a  new  cabinet  consisting  of  twenty-two 
members  was  formed,  the  largest  in  modern  times. 
Liberals  and  Unionists  were  brought  together  in  it, 
as  well  as  others,  and  a  place  was  offered  to  Mr.  Red- 
mond ;  but  he  declined,  thinking  it  inadvisable  to  enter. 
Notwithstanding  that  the  government  would  have 
been  glad  to  have  him,  and  that  he  remained  outside 

i  Annual  Register,  1914,  p.  216. 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      399 

through  his  own  decision,  Nationalists  saw  with  ap- 
prehension that  while  he  was  not  a  minister,  the  leader 
of  their  bitterest  enemies,  Sir  Edward  Carson,  came 
into  the  cabinet  as  attorney-general.  Afterwards  this 
created  a  very  unfavorable  impression.  During  the 
year  Irish  affairs  attracted  little  attention  in  parlia- 
ment or  in  England,  since  men  were  absorbed  in  the 
mightier  events  of  the  war;  and  there  was  a  disposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  government  to  let  Irish  affairs 
take  their  own  course,  with  a  view  to  avoiding  trouble 
in  this  most  troublesome  time.  In  November,  Mr. 
Redmond  in  the  Commons  declared  that  the  Irish  race 
throughout  the  world  was  with  the  Allies  in  the  war, 
and  wanted  no  premature  peace,  but  he  complained 
that  the  military  authorities  did  not  properly  recog- 
nize the  achievements  of  the  Irish  troops. 

After  the  Irish  rebellion  there  was  great  and  just 
indignation  in  England,  and  little  sympathy  with 
such  Sinn  Fein  doctrines  as  were  understood. 
Unionists  particularly  cried  out  for  stern  measures 
and  strong  rule,  and  many  were  disposed  to  agree  with 
them.  May  11,  however,  Mr.  Asquith  announced 
that  he  was  going  to  Ireland  to  consult  with  the  mili- 
tary and  civil  authorities  there,  so  that  some  arrange- 
ment might  be  made  for  governing  Ireland  which 
would  commend  itself  to  all  Irishmen  and  to  the 
British  people  as  well.  A  fortnight  later  he  declared 
in  the  Commons  that  he  had  returned  with  two  domi- 
nant impressions :  that  the  existing  machinery  of  gov- 
ernment there  had  broken  down,  and  that  in  Ireland 


400    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

there  was  a  universal  feeling  that  here  was  a  new 
opportunity  for  settlement  and  agreement.  The 
Home  Rule  Act  was  on  the  statute  books,  but  nobody 
wished  to  see  one  group  of  Irishmen  coerced  by  an- 
other. Why  could  there  not  be  agreement  among  the 
various  parties  in  the  island?  The  British  govern- 
ment was  very  anxious  to  secure  such  result.  Mr. 
Lloyd  George  had  just  undertaken  to  devote  himself 
to  a  settlement  of  the  Irish  question,  and  was  now  in 
communication  with  the  various  Irish  interests.  In 
the  general  satisfaction  with  which  this  announce- 
ment was  received  both  Redmond  and  Carson  ex- 
pressed their  approval. 

Meanwhile  the  Royal  Commission  made  its  scath- 
ing report  upon  the  weakness  of  administration  in 
Ireland,  and  Sir  Roger  Casement  was  hanged  in  Pen- 
tonville  Jail;  but  while  the  Irish  tragedy  was  coming 
to  its  conclusion,  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  efforts  began  to 
produce  their  effect.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Nationalist 
Party  in  Dublin,  June  10,  it  was  stated  that  he  pro- 
posed to  bring  Home  Rule  into  immediate  operation, 
and  to  introduce  an  amending  bill  for  the  period  of 
the  war  and  a  short  while  beyond,  that  during  this 
time  the  Irish  members  were  to  remain  at  Westminster 
in  their  present  number,  and  six  Ulster  counties  were 
to  be  left  under  the  Imperial  government  as  at  pres- 
ent. The  Ulster  Unionist  Council  at  once  declared 
that  it  abhorred,  as  ever,  the  policy  of  Home  Rule,  but 
in  this  urgency  would  defer  to  Imperial  necessity ;  and 
Sir  Edward  Carson  was  given  authority  to  assist  the 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      401 

negotiations  under  Mr.  Lloyd  George  on  the  basis  of 
an  exclusion  of  the  six  counties,  Antrim,  Armagh, 
Derry,  Down,  Fermanagh,  and  Tyrone,  and  of  the 
cities  of  Newry,  Londonderry,  and  Belfast.  In  Bel- 
fast the  Nationalists  agreed  to  the  proposals,  and  it 
almost  seemed  that  the  insoluble  Irish  problem  was 
about  to  be  settled  for  the  time.  Difficulties  arose  at 
once,  however.  Many  people  in  Great  Britain  be- 
lieved that  Ireland  should  be  dealt  with  very  vigor- 
ously. Some  of  the  Irish  Unionists  protested  that 
such  giving  of  Home  Rule  was  really  rewarding  Ire- 
land for  a  rebellion  which  had  only  just  been  sup- 
pressed. Unionists  in  England  criticised  the  pro- 
posals of  Mr.  Lloyd  George:  they  had  supposed 
Home  Rule  would  be  given  after  the  war,  but  he 
seemed  ready  to  establish  it  at  once.  It  would  be 
perilous  to  undertake  this  at  such  a  time  with  Ireland 
so  disturbed.  The  Ulster  Unionists  were  as  deter- 
mined as  ever  not  to  give  up  their  connection  with 
Britain. 

After  further  consultation,  July  10,  Mr.  Asquith 
announced  the  proposals:  to  bring  Home  Rule  into 
operation  with  the  exclusion  of  the  counties  and  the 
cities  already  named;  he  then  told  Sir  Edward  Car- 
son that  these  districts  were  definitely  struck  out  of  the 
Act,  and  would  not  be  included  without  a  new  bill; 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons  during  the  continuance 
of  the  act  to  be  made  would  consist  of  the  members 
who  served  in  the  Imperial  parliament,  and  the  execu- 
tive was  not  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  prosecu- 


402          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

tion  of  the  war  by  the  British  government.  These 
proposals  differed  from  those  which  had  first  come 
from  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and,  of  course,  from  the 
Home  Rule  Act  passed  but  in  abeyance,  and  Red- 
mond declared  that  they  brought  the  negotiations  to 
an  end  so  far  as  the  Nationalists  were  concerned.  He 
and  his  followers  were  angered,  moreover,  at  the  de- 
termination expressed  by  some  of  the  English  leaders 
to  deal  firmly  with  Ireland ;  while  Unionists  welcomed 
what  they  said  was  the  intention  of  the  government  to 
repress  all  treason  and  sedition.  Shortly  after  Mr. 
Asquith  told  Mr.  Redmond  that  Britain  would  not 
consent  to  allow  Irish  members  in  the  parliament  in 
their  present  numbers  after  the  next  election.  The 
Irish  leader  declared  that  the  course  of  the  govern- 
ment was  such  as  to  make  the  Irish  people  suspect  its 
good  faith,  and  that  it  would  inflame  resentment  in 
Ireland.  Next  Mr.  Dillon  asserted  that  military  rule 
now  prevailing  in  Ireland  was  doing  more  to  spread 
disaffection  than  all  the  efforts  of  Sinn  Fein.  Mr. 
Redmond  appealed  to  Englishmen  not  to  let  their  in- 
dignation at  the  outbreak  of  2,000  men  in  Dublin  lead 
to  the  injustice  of  forgetting  the  part  of  the  150,000 
Irishmen  fighting  in  the  service  of  the  Empire.  By 
this  time  the  negotiations  had  failed.  Essentially,  as 
before,  the  failure  was  due  to  the  difficulty  of  recon- 
ciling the  wishes  of  Ulster  with  those  of  the  rest  of 
Ireland. 

Meanwhile  graver  trouble  had  come  with  respect  to 
conscription,  which  was  continually  being  discussed 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      403 

as  the  need  for  men  became  greater.  Conditions  got 
worse  rather  than  better.  In  February,  1917,  a  num- 
ber of  Irishmen  were  arrested  and  deported  under 
the  Defence  of  the  Realm  Act,  which  caused  protest 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  March  7,  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor  moved  a  resolution  that  Ireland  receive  the 
free  institutions  promised  for  such  a  long  time:  there 
were  as  before  the  alternatives  of  settlement  or  coer- 
cion. It  was  also  said  that  the  Australian  Senate  had 
just  voted  by  large  majority  a  resolution  favoring 
Irish  Home  Rule.  Major  Redmond,  brother  of  the 
Nationalist  leader,  appealed  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons to  forget  the  past  and  start  afresh.  He  be- 
sought Sir  Edward  Carson  to  meet  the  Nationalists, 
who  would  go  any  length  to  get  the  confidence  of 
Ulster.  But  a  statement  was  then  made  for  the 
Unionists  of  the  north  that  they  would  not  go  under 
a  Home  Rule  parliament. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1916  there  had  been  a  change 
in  the  government  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  de- 
struction of  Rumania  and  increasing  danger  had 
brought  the  fall  of  Mr.  Asquith's  coalition  cabinet, 
and  the  government  was  now  being  carried  on  pri- 
marily by  a  war  cabinet  of  five,  with  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  at  the  head.  In  the  debate  of  March  7  he 
stated  that  centuries  of  British  rule  had  caused  Irish- 
men to  hate  Britain,  but  that  a  portion  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Ireland  was  just  as  hostile  to  Irish  rule. 
These  were  the  fundamental  facts  of  the  situation. 
The  people  of  Britain  were  ready  to  confer  self-gov- 


404    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

ernment  upon  the  Irish,  but  were  not  prepared  to 
force  the  population  of  Ulster  to  submit  to  it  against 
their  will.  Both  he  and  Mr.  Asquith  would  welcome 
any  solution  which  did  not  involve  coercion  of  part 
of  the  Irish  people.  Apparently  John  Redmond  had 
now  come  to  the  end  of  his  patience.  He  had  wished 
to  be  loyal  to  the  best  interests  of  the  Empire,  he  had 
tried  to  assist  the  government  in  the  war,  and  he 
had  been  patient.  For  more  than  two  years  he  had 
waited:  Ireland  did  not  yet  have  Home  Rule.  Now, 
therefore,  saying  that  the  government  was  playing 
into  the  hands  of  the  Irish  revolutionary  party,  and 
that  he  would  not  enter  into  more  negotiations,  he 
declared  that  further  debate  would  be  useless,  and 
rising  called  upon  his  associates  to  withdraw  from  the 
chamber  of  the  Commons.  He  left  the  House  fol- 
lowed by  sixty  of  the  Irish  members.  Next  day  they 
held  a  meeting  at  which  they  asserted  that  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  had  changed  his  attitude  with  respect  to 
Ulster,  that  his  new  principle  would  forever  deny  self- 
government  to  Ireland,  making  it  thus  contingent 
upon  the  consent  of  a  hostile  minority,  and  called  upon 
Irishmen  all  over  the  world  to  bring  pressure  to  bear 
upon  Britain  that  Ireland  might  receive  those  right 
things  for  which  the  war  was  being  carried  on  in 
Europe. 

All  the  best  Englishmen  sincerely  regretted  the 
condition  in  which  things  now  were;  but  as  Mr.  Bonar 
Law  said,  the  principal  difficulty  in  the  way  of  Home 
Rule  was  not  convincing  the  peopk  of  Great  Britain 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      405 

but  some  of  the  people  of  Ireland.  It  was  certain 
that  a  change  of  government  was  needed  there,  and 
Britain  was  willing  to  give  self-government  at  once; 
but  a  settlement  was  needed  in  Ireland,  and  both  par- 
ties there  would  have  to  make  sacrifices  to  attain  it. 

In  May  the  prime  minister  proposed  to  Mr.  Red- 
mond and  Sir  Edward  Carson  that  a  bill  should  be 
introduced  for  the  immediate  application  of  Home 
Rule  to  Ireland,  excluding  for  five  years  the  counties 
of  northeastern  Ulster.  He  suggested  also  the 
formation  of  a  Council  of  Ireland,  so  that  unity  of 
Irish  legislation  might  be  attained,  this  council  to  be 
composed  of  representatives  from  the  excluded  area 
as  well  as  the  rest  of  Ireland.  The  future  inclusion 
of  the  area  left  out  was  to  be  subject  to  the  consent  of 
a  majority  of  its  voters.  At  the  end  of  the  letter  in 
which  these  suggestions  were  made  he  proposed  that 
if  such  arrangement  was  not  acceptable,  a  convention 
of  Irishmen  of  all  parties  should  be  assembled,  so 
that  they  might  try  to  arrange  for  themselves  a  scheme 
of  self-government  of  their  own.  The  Nationalist 
leader  decided  promptly  that  the  first  proposal  would 
find  no  approval  in  most  of  Ireland,  but  that  the  Na- 
tionalists could  agree  to  a  convention.  In  parliament 
now  Mr.  Lloyd  George  said  that  the  time  had  come 
for  the  Irish  people  to  try  their  own  hands.  If  a  con- 
vention could  only  agree,  the  British  government 
would  put  their  arrangement  into  effect.  The  con- 
vention must  represent  all  parties  in  the  island.  This 
speech  was  well  received  by  the  political  leaders ;  and 


406    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

shortly  after  it  was  known  that  the  Unionists  and  the 
Nationalists  would  both  support  such  an  effort.  The 
government  hoped  that  Sinn  Fein  would  likewise  take 
part. 

June  11,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  announced  the  plan 
of  the  Convention.  There  were  to  be  101  members, 
representing  the  counties  and  the  county  boroughs,  the 
different  religious  organizations,  commerce  and  labor, 
and  including  five  members  for  the  Nationalists,  the 
Ulster  Unionists,  and  the  southern  Unionists,  five  for 
the  Sinn  Fein,  if  they  would  come,  and  two  for  the 
O'Brienites  and  for  the  Irish  peers,  and  including 
finally  fifteen  leading  Irishmen  from  all  sections,  to 
be  nominated  by  the  government  itself. 

Irish  opinion  was  not  enthusiastic  about  the  Con- 
vention. Failure  was  expected,  and  not  much  atten- 
tion really  given.  At  first,  however,  things  went  bet- 
ter than  many  had  anticipated.  The  government 
made  some  excellent  appointments  among  the  fifteen 
members  which  it  chose,  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  Mr. 
George  Russell,  Mr.  Mahaffy,  and  others.  Sir 
Horace  Plunkett  was  at  once  elected  chairman,  and 
no  better  choice  could  have  been  made.  But  already 
there  had  been  discouraging  events.  The  British  gov- 
ernment had  released  all  the  Sinn  Fein  prisoners  con- 
fined for  the  Easter  Rebellion,  desiring  that  the  Con- 
vention might  begin  its  work  in  the  midst  of  good 
feeling.  Now  the  Irish  people,  who  were  giving  scant 
heed  to  the  plan  of  the  Convention,  welcomed  the 
Sinn  Fein  leaders  with  frantic  delight.  They  re- 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      407 

turned  nothing  mollified  at  the  action  of  the  authori- 
ties, but  rather  with  the  feeling  that  the  justice  of 
the  cause  for  which  they  had  suffered  was  established : 
the  government  was  doing  them  no  act  of  grace  in  giv- 
ing them  freedom.  As  for  Ireland,  they  would  ac- 
cept nothing  less  than  the  complete  independence 
which  they  had  striven  to  procure ;  so  they  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Convention.  Their  return  was 
marked  at  once  by  violence  and  riots.  It  was  evident 
that  for  the  moment  they  had  captured  the  sentiments 
of  many  of  the  Irish  people,  for  when  their  leader, 
Prof,  de  Valera,  stood  as  candidate  for  East  Clare,  he 
was  returned  by  an  enormous  majority. 

During  the  summer  of  1917  the  Convention  held 
secret  sessions.  Apparently  some  progress  was  made; 
but  far  more  emotion  was  aroused  when  a  Sinn  Feiner, 
who  had  been  released  at  the  time  of  the  general  am- 
nesty, and  then  re-arrested  for  attempting  to  incite 
disaffection,  starved  himself  to  death  in  prison,  be- 
cause he  was  not  accorded  the  treatment  of  a  political 
prisoner.  At  his  funeral  in  Dublin  there  was  an  im- 
mense and  impressive  demonstration;  and  it  was  an 
ominous  sign  that  in  the  mighty  procession  which  went 
to  his  grave,  there  were  more  than  a  hundred  priests. 

In  October,  Mr.  Redmond  deplored  the  conduct  of 
the  authorities  in  Ireland  at  the  very  time  when  the 
Convention  was  striving  to  accomplish  something; 
but  the  reply  was  that  the  young  men  of  Ireland,  un- 
conscripted  for  service  in  the  great  war,  were  being 
enrolled  apparently  for  another  rebellion.  The  prime 


408    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

minister  said  that  there  had  been  attempts  to  land 
arms  in  Ireland;  now  disloyal  organizations  were  be- 
ing suppressed.  He  added  that  if  the  Convention 
could  reach  a  substantial  agreement,  the  government 
would  put  their  plan  into  operation  without  any 
delay. 

The  wisest  and  most  moderate  Irishmen  had  during 
this  time  tried  to  arouse  interest  and  support  for  the 
Convention's  work.  Never  did  Mr.  Russell  write 
more  finely.  A  Protestant  and  an  Ulsterman,  but 
above  all  a  great-hearted  Irishman,  he  addressed  him- 
self to  the  best  people  in  the  United  Kingdom,  in  a 
pamphlet  which  revived  the  finest  traditions  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  the  masters  of  political  argu- 
ment used  the  pamphlet  as  an  instrument  in  political 
debate.  "There  are  moments,"  he  said,  "in  history 
when  by  the  urgency  of  circumstances  every  one  in  a 
country  is  drawn  from  normal  pursuits  to  consider  the 
affairs  of  the  nation."  2  He  was  addressing  himself 
to  Unionists,  Sinn  Feiners,  Nationalists,  and  the 
electorate  of  Britain.  Well  would  it  be  if  they  could 
understand  each  other,  and  meet  in  a  spirit  of  compro- 
mise and  moderation,  for  Ireland's  sake.  Solemn 
was  the  warning  addressed  to  England.  At  no  time 
in  Irish  history  was  the  spirit  of  nationality  more  in- 
tense than  now.  It  would  be  well  to  grant  Irishmen 
the  freedom  and  wholeness  in  political  life  which  they 

2  Thoughts  for  a  Convention.  Published  originally  in  The  Irish  Times, 
then  reprinted  as  a  pamphlet,  it  has  been  published  in  this  country 
along  with  some  other  pieces  in  The  Irish  Home-Rule  Convention  (New 
York,  1917). 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      409 

so  much  desired.  "If  their  claim  is  not  met  they  will 
brood  and  scheme  and  wait  to  strike  a  blow ;  though  the 
dream  may  be  handed  on  from  them  to  their  children 
and  their  children's  children,  yet  they  will  hope,  some- 
time, to  give  the  last  vengeful  thrust  of  enmity  at  the 
stricken  heart  of  the  empire."  Ireland,  he  said,  if 
her  representation  was  to  be  diminished  in  the  Im- 
perial parliament,  wanted  control  of  trade  policy  and 
taxation,  since  these  things  dominated  the  life  of  a 
people,  and  she  desired  to  build  up  her  own  civilization 
with  an  economic  policy  in  keeping.  Therefore,  the 
Home  Rule  Act  should  be  radically  changed  so  as  to 
give  Ireland  unfettered  control  over  taxation,  cus- 
toms, excise,  and  trade ;  there  should  be  the  status  and 
powers  of  economic  control  possessed  by  the  self-gov- 
erning dominions.  He  called  on  Nationalists  to  be 
very  liberal,  and  give  every  safeguard  to  Ulster  which 
the  men  of  the  north  might  require.  Let  religion  be 
left  to  the  churches  and  altogether  dissevered  from 
politics.  He  bade  Unionists  recognize  with  sympathy 
the  fine  Irish  culture,  and  wish  to  see  it  developed 
along  with  their  own  in  Ireland.  To  the  extremists 
he  declared  that  their  demand  for  complete  independ- 
ence would  make  it  impossible  that  Ulster  should  ever 
throw  in  her  lot  with  a  self-governing  Ireland;  if 
they  desired  to  have  her,  they  must  be  content  with  an 
Ireland  possessing  complete  control  over  internal  af- 
fairs, but  remaining  within  the  commonwealth  of  do- 
minions of  the  Empire.  The  men  of  South  Africa 
had  wisely  done  this.  "Is  the  same  magnanimity  not 


410    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

possible  in  Ireland?"  To  procure  the  well-being  of 
Ireland  the  extreme  parties  must  abate  their  demands. 
Some  of  these  ideas  have  a  greater  importance  than 
appears  at  first  glance.  It  is  evident  that  any  writ- 
ing intended  to  bring  about  moderateness  and  procure 
conciliation  and  agreement  in  such  circumstances  must 
advise  the  Covenanters  to  abandon  their  unyielding 
exclusiveness  and  Sinn  Fein  to  give  up  its  impractical 
demand  for  complete  separation;  but  the  pamphlet 
embodies  an  idea  which  at  this  very  time  was  being 
more  and  more  taken  up  by  the  Nationalists,  the 
great  moderate  party,  hitherto  predominant  in  Irish 
politics,  an  idea  which  constitutes  a  distinct  step  in 
the  history  of  Home  Rule.  Up  to  this  time  Home 
Rule  had  generally  been  understood  to  mean  Irish 
autonomy  within  the  United  Kingdom,  since  control 
of  customs  was  to  be  not  in  Ireland  but  in  the  parlia- 
ment at  London.  In  this  form  it  had  been  accepted 
by  Parnell  and  repeatedly  accepted  and  approved  by 
John  Redmond.  Now  George  Russell  put  forward 
what  others  were  thinking  of  and  what  was  presently 
insisted  on  by  the  predominant  interests  in  the  Con- 
vention, a  demand  for  control  of  the  customs,  thus 
giving  Ireland  essentially  the  status  of  one  of  the  self- 
governing  colonies  or  dominions.  This  would  bring 
about  what  might  be  designated  properly  as  "colonial" 
Home  Rule.  That  is  to  say,  while  advocates  of  Home 
Rule  were  far  less  radical  than  Sinn  Fein,  they  were 
going  farther  and  asking  for  greater  powers  than 
before. 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      411 

At  length,  in  April,  1918,  the  Irish  Convention, 
after  fifty  sessions,  held  its  last  meeting  in  Trinity 
College,  Dublin.  The  report  presented  by  its  chair- 
man was  adopted,  and  the  Convention  finally  ad- 
journed. The  conduct  of  the  members  had  been 
amiable  and  conciliatory.  The  report,  which  had  been 
agreed  to  only  with  the  utmost  difficulty  and  after  a 
great  deal  of  discussion,  had  indeed  been  adopted,  but 
it  had  not  been  accepted  by  a  decisive  majority.  It 
is  true,  there  had  not  apparenly  been  more  insuperable 
obstacles  to  overcome  than  had  been  met  by  those  who 
once  drafted  a  constitution  and  got  it  adopted  by  the 
American  states.  Just  as  then  there  had  been  the 
fundamental  differences  between  the  south  and  the 
north,  between  state  sovereignty  and  a  sovereignty 
above  the  states,  between  the  large  states  and  the 
small  ones,  so  in  the  Convention  there  had  been  the 
opposition  between  Nationalists  and  Unionists,  while 
outside  there  was  the  difference  between  them  who 
would  have  local  autonomy  or  colonial  status  and  them 
who  wanted  nothing  less  than  complete  independence. 
In  the  end  Ulster  Unionists  remained  irreconcilable, 
just  as  the  men  of  Rhode  Island  once  had  been,  and 
the  men  of  New  York  had  threatened  to  be;  but  the 
report  was  accepted  by  the  majority  of  the  National- 
ists, all  of  the  southern  Unionists,  and  most  of  the 
Labor  representatives.  So,  again  the  principal  dif- 
ference remained  what  it  had  been  before,  between 
Ulster  and  the  rest  of  Ireland.  Yet  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett  thought  that  the  report  laid  a  foundation  of 


412    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Irish  agreement  unprecedented  in  history,  and  it  did 
seem  that  greater  adjustments  had  been  made  in  the 
Convention  and  a  larger  spirit  of  concession  shown 
than  ever  before.  The  wise  and  moderate  men  of 
Ireland  might  well  remember  that  even  after  the 
American  constitution  was  drawn  up,  insurmountable 
difficulties  had  seemed  to  remain;  that  only  some  of 
the  less  important  states  adopted  it  willingly  and  at 
once ;  that  in  Pennsylvania  it  was  carried  by  chicanery 
and  strong  methods,  followed  by  riots  and  the  appear- 
ance of  state  militia  and  cannon ;  that  it  was  taken  up 
by  Virginia  only  after  long  and  bitter  opposition ;  with 
much  difficulty  in  Massachusetts;  and  that  in  New 
York  the  prospect  seemed  hopeless,  with  a  strong 
majority  against  it,  until  after  riots  and  bitterest  con- 
test it  was  secured  by  Alexander  Hamilton's  magnifi- 
cent reasoning  and  persistence.  When  it  was  remem- 
bered that  the  constitution  could  scarcely  have  suc- 
ceeded, had  not  the  great  states,  so  doubtful  or  so  op- 
posed to  it,  acceded,  that  for  many  a  year  afterward 
some  of  them  were  cold  or  disobedient,  but  that  in  the 
end,  nevertheless,  they  all  worked  loyally  to  make  it 
a  splendid  success,  Mr.  Russell  and  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett  might  properly  feel  that  their  task  was  not 
greater  or  more  hopeless. 

The  scheme  proposed  by  the  Convention  was  that 
Ireland  should  be  a  self-governing  member  of  the 
Empire.  The  supreme  authority  of  the  Imperial  par- 
liament was  to  remain  undiminished,  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment to  be  erected  not  being  allowed  to  legislate  on 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      413 

peace,  war,  the  army,  navy,  treaties,  foreign  relations, 
and  some  other  things.  The  executive  power  in  Ire- 
land was  to  be  nominally,  as  before,  in  the  king,  which 
meant,  of  course,  the  ministry  of  the  Empire,  to  be 
exercised  through  a  lord  lieutenant  on  the  advice  of  an 
Irish  executive  committee,  this  latter  provision  giving 
Irishmen  actually,  through  their  representatives,  con- 
trol of  their  government,  just  as  the  people  of  Eng- 
land had  control  through  their  House  of  Commons 
and  cabinet.  In  the  parliament  at  Westminster  Ire- 
land was  to  have  forty-two  representatives,  who 
should  have  the  right  to  deliberate  and  vote  on  all 
matters.  The  new  Irish  parliament  was  to  consist  of 
a  Senate,  made  up  of  archbishops,  representative 
peers,  and  other  important  personages,  and  a  House 
of  Commons,  containing  160  representative  members 
and  40  additional  ones,  20  of  the  extra  members  to 
be  chosen  by  Ulster  constituencies  and  20  appointed 
by  the  lord  lieutenant  to  represent  the  southern  Union- 
ists, this  for  the  additional  safeguarding  of  the  rights 
of  Unionists  in  Ireland:  forty  per  cent  of  the  total 
membership  of  the  House  was  to  be  guaranteed  them. 
This  concession  was  made  by  Nationalists  something 
in  the  way  that  long  before  two  senators  were  allowed 
to  little  Rhode  Island  at  the  same  time  that  Virginia 
and  Massachusetts  each  were  given  two  in  spite  of 
their  far  greater  numbers  and  wealth.  One  important 
matter,  that  of  customs  and  excise,  the  Convention 
had  not  been  able  to  agree  about,  and  determination 
was  to  be  left  until  after  the  end  of  the  war ;  though  a 


414.          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

supplementary  statement  by  some  of  the  members  in- 
sisted that  Ireland  should  be  given  control  of  them. 
Substantially,  the  Convention  proposed  Home  Rule 
for  Ireland  in  all  Irish  matters,  with  Ireland  continu- 
ing to  be  a  member  of  the  British  Empire,  and  with 
adequate  and  generous  provisions  for  the  protection 
of  the  Unionist  minority.  There  had  been  much  com- 
promise, and  it  seemed  that  something  had  been  ac- 
complished. For  a  moment  the  opinion  abroad  was 
very  favorable,  and  there  was  hope  among  the  widely 
scattered  friends  of  Ireland  that  the  Irish  question  was 
about  to  be  fairly  settled.  Apparently  the  British 
government  welcomed  the  solution  no  less ;  and  a  com- 
mittee of  the  cabinet  council  was  at  once  appointed  to 
draft  a  bill  for  Irish  self-government. 

It  soon  developed,  however,  that  little  had  really 
been  determined.  Not  only  was  the  opposition  of 
Ulster  still  so  strong  that  the  old  difficulty  remained 
in  the  government's  way,  but  all  of  the  Convention's 
good  work  was  soon  obscured  by  the  storm  which  con- 
scription now  raised.  In  April,  after  strong  opposi- 
tion and  passionate  resistance,  the  British  government 
announced  that  compulsory  service  would  be  extended 
to  Ireland.  The  work  of  the  Convention  was  forgot- 
ten there  almost  at  once,  and  all  classes  united  with 
that  passionate  feeling  often  characteristic  of  Irish 
movements  to  fight  against  military  service  imposed 
by  the  United  Kingdom.  The  Irish  question  had  be- 
come very  intricate.  All  over  the  island  resistance 
to  conscription  was  prepared;  all  parties  were  united 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      415 

in  opposition,  Nationalist  as  well  as  Sinn  Fein;  and 
collections  were  taken  up  in  the  parishes  to  support  a 
campaign  of  obstruction.  Home  Rule  had  not  yet 
been  given;  Ireland  was  neither  loyal  nor  contented, 
though  the  enemy  was  almost  at  the  gates.  Every 
day  the  war  was  more  dreadful,  but  the  aloofness  of 
Ireland  was  more  steadfast,  heartless,  and  cool.  Dur- 
ing these  days  most  of  the  Irish  members  were  either 
not  present  in  the  House  of  Commons,  or  when  they 
spoke  it  was  with  bitterness  and  chilling  resentment. 
Ireland  was  seething  with  discontent,  and  not  willing, 
except  for  the  Ulster  Unionists,  any  longer  to  assist 
in  the  war.  What  Prussian  authorities  would  have 
done  in  such  circumstances  everybody  but  the  Irish 
seemed  to  know  very  well ;  but  Sinn  Fein  was  believed 
to  be  in  treasonable  correspondence  with  Germany  as 
it  had  been  two  years  before. 

Conscription  was  the  law  but  it  was  not  yet  en- 
forced, and  was  destined,  indeed,  not  to  be  brought 
into  effect ;  but  neither  was  any  Home  Rule  obtained. 
In  June,  1918,  Lord  Curzon  announced  that  efforts 
would  be  made  to  recruit  Irishmen  by  voluntary  en- 
listment, and  that  meanwhile  compulsory  service 
would  not  be  exacted.  At  the  same  time  he  said  that 
in  view  of  the  present  circumstances,  and  in  considera- 
tion of  recent  revelations  about  Sinn  Fein,  the  govern- 
ment did  not  deem  the  present  an  opportune  occasion 
for  the  setting  up  of  Home  Rule.  Thus  was  the  mat- 
ter put  aside  for  a  period  not  yet  determined. 

And  now  the  last  state  of  things  was  worse  than  the 


416          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

first.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  most  Irishmen 
seemed  to  acquiesce  in  the  Nationalist  leadership,  and 
the  Nationalists  seemed  to  be  loyal  supporters  of  the 
supreme  authority  in  London.  Had  self-government 
been  established  in  Ireland  all  might  have  been  well— 
we  cannot  be  sure;  but  very  great  difficulties  in  a 
grievous  time  had  caused  the  doing  of  this  to  be  post- 
poned. The  majority  of  Irishmen  had  not  been  will- 
ing to  subordinate  even  temporarily  their  own  particu- 
lar questions  to  the  greater  ones  which  concerned  all 
the  world,  and,  impatient  at  any  delay,  the  mass  of 
them  gradually  drifted  away  from  their  leaders  to  the 
radicals,  and  in  the  end,  when  the  Nationalist  lead- 
ers tried  to  keep  their  following,  they  had  to  be  al- 
most as  resolute  in  their  opposition  as  Sinn  Fein,  with 
which  at  times  they  seemed  in  accord.  Even  then 
Sinn  Fein  grew  and  thrived  with  new  strength.  It 
is  true,  as  Irishmen  in  Ireland  grew  cold  toward  the 
war  and  drew  away  from  Great  Britain,  Irishmen 
beyond  the  seas,  with  wider  view  seeing  more  clearly, 
and  gradually  coming  to  the  fullest  support  of  the 
Allies  in  their  struggle  for  the  freedom  of  the  world, 
at  length  were  impatient  at  the  aloofness  of  their 
people  in  the  home  land.  As  they  threw  themselves 
heart  and  soul  into  the  war,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
foolish  dealing  of  Sinn  Fein  with  Germany  was  more 
apparent,  some  of  the  leaders  in  Ireland  were  alarmed. 
The  Nationalists  repudiated  connection  with  Sinn 
Fein,  and  presently  decided  to  go  back  to  the  House 
of  Commons.  Mr.  Dillon,  their  leader,  issued  an  ap- 


THE  HOME  RULE  QUESTION      417 

peal  to  Irish- Americans  not  to  believe  that  Ireland 
was  pro-German,  and  not  to  be  prejudiced  against 
them  for  what  they  were  doing:  But  meanwhile  Na- 
tionalist voters  were  rapidly  going  to  Sinn  Fein. 

A  system  of  Home  Rule  would  almost  certainly 
have  been  established  in  Ireland  if  the  war  had  not 
broken  out,  and  even  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle  it 
might  perhaps  have  been  tried  except  for  the  Sinn 
Fein  conspiracies,  and  the  disorder  attendant.  But 
it  should  be  noted  that  the  most  potent  factor  in  caus- 
ing Home  Rule  to  be  withheld  was  irreconcilable  dif- 
ference between  Irishmen  themselves,  especially  be- 
tween a  part  of  Ulster  and  the  rest  of  Ireland. 
Unionist  Ulster  had  steadily  supported  both  con- 
scription and  volunteering  and  was  thought  to  have 
taken  a  creditable  share  in  the  war,  at  the  same  time 
that  Sir  Edward  Carson  carried  on  the  fight  against 
ever  subjecting  Ulster  to  Home  Rule;  and  while  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  the  British  government  had 
been  on  the  point  of  putting  Home  Rule  into  effect 
despite  the  utmost  opposition  of  Ulster,  and  seemed 
ready  to  use  the  British  army  in  subduing  the  Cove- 
nanters and  forcing  them  to  obey  a  Dublin  parliament, 
it  was  certain  by  the  end  of  the  struggle  that  most  of 
the  British  people  were  not  willing  to  employ  armed 
coercion,  and  that  undoubtedly  no  British  army  would 
ever  be  used  for  such  purpose  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   QUESTION    OF    CONSCRIPTION 

Join  the  Army :  Sell  your  soul,  your  country,  and  your 
God  for  the  Saxon  shilling.  Join  England's  hireling  mur- 
derers that  pitchcapped  and  hanged  your  forefathers  in  '98, 
and  that  would  do  the  same  with  you  to-morrow.  Your  re- 
ward will  be  a  life  of  immorality,  and  a  dog's  death  in  the 
gaol  or  by  the  roadside.  .  .  .  God  Save  Ireland  and  to  hell 
with  England. 

Poster  issued  in  the  west  of  Ireland,  19'09. 

.  .  .  die  for  England.  Why  should  they?  What  have 
they  or  their  forbears  ever  got  from  England  that  they 
should  die  for  her?  .  .  .  This  war  may  be  just  or  unjust, 
but  any  fair-minded  man  will  admit  that  it  is  England's  war, 
not  Ireland's. 

Letter,  of  the  Bishop  of  Limerick,  November  10,  1915. 

THE  Irish  question,  so  difficult  and  involved,  be- 
cause of  old,  half-forgotten  conflicts,  and  present 
opposition  and  difference,  from  sense  of  danger,  from 
rising  nationalism,  from  desire  for  autonomy,  because 
of  stern  adherence  to  the  Union,  was  made  more  diffi- 
cult in  the  years  of  the  European  War  by  a  factor 
which  developed  from  the  war  itself,  by  something 
which  enhanced  resentment,  increased  hostility,  and 
at  last  brought  Britain  and  Ireland  to  such  critical 
pass  as  existed  in  the  Ulster  crisis  some  years  before ; 

418 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION      419 

something  which  seems,  indeed,  settled  now,  with  the 
end  of  the  war,  but  is  certain  to  leave  in  Ireland  and 
particularly  in  England  embers  of  hatred  and  con- 
tempt which  will  smolder  and  glow  fiercely  dull  for 
many  a  day  hereafter — the  struggle  for  conscription 
in  Ireland. 

As  the  great  war  continued  the  British  Empire 
made  ever  mightier  efforts  to  overcome  lack  of  pre- 
paredness at  the  start.  The  conflict  was  being  carried 
on  upon  a  scale  hitherto  undreamed  of:  constantly 
more  soldiers  were  needed.  France  gave  all  of  her 
manhood  that  could  fight,  and  so  did  Germany;  Rus- 
sia used  her  men  prodigally,  but  could  not  equip  other 
millions  who  were  waiting;  all  the  time  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  United  Kingdom  to  do  more.  When 
England  entered  the  war,  it  was  her  expectation  that 
she  would  hold  the  sea,  with  some  other  assistance  if 
needed,  while  Russia  and  France  did  the  principal 
fighting  on  land ;  but  it  was  soon  evident  that  this  was 
not  enough,  since  Germany,  because  of  superior  prep- 
aration and  resources,  was  alone  ready  to  conquer  on 
land,  and  in  the  first  year,  while  some  of  her  foes 
were  preparing  to  resist  her,  took  possession  of  parts 
of  Europe  which  made  her  resources  definitely  su- 
perior to  those  of  Russia  and  France,  and  her  posi- 
tion well-nigh  impregnable.  If  the  German  com- 
bination was  to  be  overcome,  therefore,  the  United 
Kingdom  must  expend  resources  to  the  utmost,  and 
a  great  army  must  be  raised  in  the  British  Isles,  upon 
a  scale  never  dreamed  of  there  before.  How  well  this 


420    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

was  done  in  Britain,  and  how  well  it  was  done  after- 
wards in  the  sister  commonwealth  of  the  United 
States,  all  the  world  knows  now ;  but  Britain  especially 
passed  through  difficulties  very  characteristic  of  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples. 

It  is  in  the  essence  of  their  character  and  in  conso- 
nance with  their  customs  and  old  tradition,  that  while 
they  can  be  excellent  warriors,  they  do  not  like  war, 
and  are  unwilling  to  prepare  for  it,  as  a  rule,  until  the 
imminence  of  war  compels  them;  and  that  when  they 
must  raise  an  army,  they  have  deemed  it  a  privilege 
of  freemen  to  fight  by  their  own  consent,  and  are  very 
unwilling  that  any  law  give  authority  to  compel  men 
to  fight  as  a  duty.  Not  many  ideas  were  better  estab- 
lished than  this  in  the  minds  of  the  British  people;  it 
had  been  developed  because  of  their  insular  position 
and  age-long  dependence  upon  a  navy,  and  had  been 
fortified  by  experience  in  a  long  series  of  wars  of  the 
old  kind,  where  Englishmen  had  fought  as  volunteers. 
It  is  well  known  how  strong  was  this  idea  in  the  minds 
of  Americans  up  to  a  few  years  ago,  when  they  wisely 
and  suddenly  abandoned  it  under  the  threatening  im- 
minence of  enormous  danger  and  also  because  of  the 
experience  of  England,  though  the  old  idea  continued 
to  be  a  prepossession  of  some  few  whose  intellect, 
finished  in  times  very  different,  could  not  grasp  the 
problems  of  the  present. 

Great  Britain  began  the  war  with  voluntary  service ; 
and  never  was  that  system  more  justified.  Hundreds 
of  thousands,  and  presently  millions,  of  men,  who 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     421 

would  have  wished  nothing  more  than  to  be  left  at 
peace,  enrolled  in  the  service  of  the  Empire,  at  a  time, 
when  often  there  were  no  weapons  for  them  to  use  in 
training,  and  little  equipment  when  they  got  into  the 
field.  Immense  armies  were  raised  in  this  way, 
armies  which  in  almost  any  other  war  would  have  been 
sufficient.  But  presently  it  was  seen  that  still  there 
were  not  enough  men ;  and  then  it  seemed  necessary  to 
prepare  for  a  change  of  system.  The  best,  the 
strongest,  the  most  patriotic  had  volunteered,  those 
with  most  spirit  of  responsibility  and  sense  of  public 
duty ;  but  when  more  were  needed,  it  was  found,  as  al- 
ways, that  there  were  many  not  enough  alive  to  the 
danger  and  not  possessed  with  sufficient  feeling  of 
obligation  to  offer  themselves  for  service. 

For  some  time  Englishmen  continued  to  struggle 
with  the  volunteer  system,  using  all  sorts  of  indirect 
pressure  and  compulsion.  In  the  end,  however,  this 
did  not  avail,  and  dire  necessity  seemed  to  compel  re- 
sort to  an  arrangement  which  would  oblige  those  to 
serve  who  were  not  willing  to  do  it  of  their  own  accord. 
Mr.  Asquith  was  bitterly  opposed  to  conscription,  but 
gradually  he  yielded.  The  Labor  Party  was  averse 
from  it,  as  were  many  people,  but  about  the  end  of 
1915,  after  the  matter  had  been  the  subject  of  serious 
and  increasing  discussion,  it  was  evident  that  such  a 
measure  would  not  be  steadfastly  opposed  when  the 
need  was  imperative.  At  length  in  January,  1916,  a 
bill  was  passed  to  call  upon  single  men  and  childless 
widowers  from  18  to  40;  and  in  the  following  May  the 


422          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

government,  on  the  advice  of  the  military  authorities, 
introduced  another,  providing  for  the  compulsory  en- 
listment of  all  males  in  Great  Britain  between  the 
ages  of  18  and  41 ;  in  neither  case  was  the  law  to  take 
effect  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  Redmond  and  the  Nationalists  opposed  the  first 
bill  for  a  while  on  the  ground  that  necessity  for  it  had 
not  been  established.  When  they  withdrew  their  op- 
position to  what  was  avowedly  a  purely  British  meas- 
ure, Sir  Edward  Carson  urged  them  to  ask  for  the 
inclusion  of  Ireland ;  she  was  not  doing  nearly  as  well 
as  England,  he  said,  in  the  war.  In  May,  Sir  Edward 
asserted  that  the  real  reason  why  Ireland  was  ex- 
cluded from  the  provisions  of  the  pending  bill  was  Mr. 
Redmond's  advice  to  the  government;  that  this  was 
a  disgrace  to  Ireland;  and  that  the  authorities  ought 
to  suppress  anti-recruiting  campaigns  in  that  country. 
Mr.  Redmond,  replying,  declared  that  it  would  not 
only  be  wrong  and  unwise  to  attempt  to  enforce  Irish 
conscription,  but  that  such  an  attempt  would  be  an 
insane  thing  as  matters  then  were.  He  said  it  would 
have  been  well  had  the  Irish  possessed  Home  Rule  in 
the  two  years  past,  for  then  things  would  have  been 
very  different;  he  had  done  his  best  for  recruiting  in 
Ireland,  and  his  country  had  done  well  in  the  war. 
An  amendment  was  moved  to  include  Ireland  in  the 
scope  of  the  bill,  but  the  amendment  was  withdrawn 
without  a  division. 

Now  came  the  Irish  rebellion  to  embitter  relations ; 
and  it  was  more  and  more  often  repeated  now  that 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     423 

Ireland  had  given  in  proportion  to  her  population  far 
fewer  volunteers  than  England  or  Scotland,  and  that 
of  the  Irish  volunteers  a  disproportionate  number  had 
been  furnished  by  Ulster.  All  the  time  the  war  was 
more  terrible,  the  need  for  men  greater,  and  the  ex- 
tension of  conscription  more  discussed.  The  follow- 
ers of  Sinn  Fein  had  long  maintained  that  no  proper 
Irishman  could  ever  have  to  do  with  the  armed  forces 
of  Britain.  Now  the  Nationalists  were  unyielding 
against  compulsory  service.  In  October  Mr.  Red- 
mond said  that  the  imposing  of  conscription  would  be 
the  most  fatal  thing  that  could  happen  to  Ireland,  and 
that  he  did  not  believe  the  British  government  would 
challenge  a  conflict  about  it.  He  declared  again  that 
proposals  about  conscription  would  not  be  listened  to. 
On  the  other  hand  he  asked  that  Home  Rule  be  put 
into  effect,  that  martial  law  be  withdrawn,  that  prison- 
ers not  yet  tried  for  the  rebellion  be  released.  Let 
the  government  trust  the  Irish  people.  Mr.  Devlin 
derided  ministers  who  talked  of  fighting  for  the  rights 
of  small  nations  and  yet  kept  down  their  own  little 
nation  with  martial  law.  What  must  Irishmen  in  the 
trenches  think  of  the  system  that  prevailed  in  their 
island?  The  Nationalists  could  give  the  government 
no  more  co-operation  as  things  were,  but  a  great  deal 
if  Ireland  received  Home  Rule.  About  this  very 
time  the  Irish  Unionist  members  recorded  their  opin- 
ion that  the  Military  Service  Act  ought  to  be  extended 
to  Ireland.  Mr.  Asquith  said  that  the  situation  was 
so  bad  that  only  by  agreement  could  it  be  amended; 


424    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

everyone  in  Great  Britain  would  welcome  and  assist 
such  agreement.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  appealed  to  men 
of  all  parties  to  aid  in  improving  conditions.  The 
number  of  recruits  from  Ireland  was  small,  and  Irish 
help  was  essential.  During  all  this  time  the  govern- 
ment was  vigorously  searching  for  new  men  to  add  to 
its  armies,  but  as  yet  it  hesitated  to  force  conscription 
on  Ireland. 

Irish  affairs  now  went  from  bad  to  worse.  In  1917 
the  idea  of  an  Irish  convention,  to  have  Irishmen 
try  to  settle  the  difficulties  themselves,  was  proposed 
by  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  the  idea  was  accepted  in 
Ireland.  But  while  the  Convention  was  sitting,  and 
while  Irishmen  were  pondering  the  advice  of  their 
wisest  citizens,  the  storm  of  the  war  loomed  more  im- 
minent over  the  islands  in  ever  more  terrific  propor- 
tions. Vaster  and  vaster  grew  the  conflict,  and 
greater  were  the  efforts  which  the  Allies  must  make 
if  they  were  not  to  go  down  in  defeat.  Men  from 
Great  Britain  had  volunteered  by  the  million,  and 
then  others  had  been  obliged  to  serve,  and  the  age 
limits  of  those  so  compelled  had  been  changed  to  in- 
clude still  more.  During  this  period  Irishmen  had 
not  come  forward  in  very  great  numbers;  only  about 
170,000  had  volunteered  altogether.  At  first  under 
the  leadership  of  Redmond  there  had  been  a  generous 
outburst  of  feeling  and  considerable  recruiting  in 
Ireland,  but  this  had  not  continued,  and  the  numbers 
obtained  there  bore  no  proportion  to  those  from  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Wales,  or  those  which  the  over- 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     425 

seas  dominions  put  forward.  Americans,  who  have 
not  been  through  a  similar  experience  in  this  genera- 
tion, can  only  faintly  imagine  the  deep  scorn  and  the 
silent  wrath,  nay,  the  bursting  sense  of  injustice  that 
now  arose  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  Britain. 
True,  there  were  here,  as  always,  two  sides  to  the  ques- 
tion. Irishmen  declared  that  they  would  not  volun- 
teer till  they  had  Home  Rule,  and  later  they  said  they 
would  not  submit  to  compulsory  service  unless  such  a 
provision  were  imposed  by  an  Irish  parliament.  But 
it  must  be  said  that  adherents  of  Sinn  Fein,  and  others, 
did  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  Irishmen  ought  not  to 
fight  and  would  not  fight  in  a  war  without  interest  to 
them.  In  Britain  people  who  believed  that  the  com- 
mon heritage  of  civilized  mankind  was  at  stake,  and 
that  the  Allies  were  giving  everything  in  a  sacred 
cause,  not  merely  their  own  but  that  of  all  others  who 
shared  the  democratic,  humanitarian  culture  of  the 
western  world,  of  Ireland  as  much  as  of  any — they 
had  to  see  Irishmen  for  the  most  part  standing  aside, 
refusing  to  volunteer,  defying  conscription,  discour- 
aging enlistments,  heaping  odium  upon  those  who 
came  forward  to  serve,  and  all  the  while  making  heart- 
less complaints  and  bitter  sneers,  and  accusations  that 
England  treated  Irishmen  with  tyranny  like  unto  that 
of  the  Germans.  And  this  was  taking  place  now  at 
a  time  when  the  cause  of  the  Allies  was  dark  under  the 
shadow  of  disaster  sufficient  to  crush  the  best  and  most 
dauntless. 

Russia  withdrew  from  the  war.     Unable  to  carry 


426    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

on  a  great  modern  struggle,  lacking  as  she  did  the 
basic  and  essential  industries,  able  only  to  give  men 
in  prodigal  waste,  she  fought  well,  almost  as  long  as 
she  could,  beset  as  she  was  with  traitors,  ruined  by 
German  propaganda  and  spies,  without  proper  arms, 
munitions,  or  transportation.  At  last  she  succumbed, 
after  unheard-of  losses  and  suffering,  endured  in  such 
manner  that  hereafter  the  story  of  it  all  will  be  as 
glorious  as  it  is  terrible  and  tragic.  She  was  not  able 
any  longer  to  carry  on  an  offensive  war ;  her  railways 
were  worn  out,  her  fortresses  lost,  most  of  her  trained 
officers  captured  or  dead,  most  of  her  material  of  war 
ruined  or  in  the  enemy's  hands.  Now  when  the  mili- 
tary organization  was  nearly  impotent,  and  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  people  not  to  be  endured,  there  came 
into  the  unhappy  country  through  German  connivance 
exponents  of  new  and  radical  ideas.  I  know  little  of 
the  Bolsheviki;  but  most  people  thought  they  were 
fools  advocating  impossible  ideas  and  impractical 
changes  at  the  most  impossible  time,  or  else  traitors 
in  behalf  of  the  Germans ;  though  certain  writers  who 
dwelt  aloof  in  a  world  of  words  and  their  own  tenuous 
ideas  proclaimed  that  here  were  prophets  of  a  won- 
drous and  splendid  order  to  come  in  a  golden  future. 
Documents  since  published  have  convinced  most  per- 
sons that  they  were  probably  in  German  pay,  and 
certainly  lost  in  admiration  of  extremest  socialist  doc- 
trines. They  completed  the  ruin  of  Russia  for  the 
time.  The  Muscovite  army,  if  imbued  with  the  spirit 
which  has  often  before  brought  forlorn  hopes  through 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     427 

dark  days  to  ultimate  triumph,  might  perhaps  have 
stood  by  the  Allies  longer  facing  Germany  in  defen- 
sive warfare ;  though  it  may  be  that  even  this  was  not 
possible.  At  all  events,  under  the  influence  of  radi- 
cals and  propagandists,  the  Russian  army  melted 
away,  and,  after  a  little,  resistance  to  the  Teutonic 
powers  came  to  an  end,  with  the  destruction  of  Russia 
sealed  in  the  Treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk. 

Up  to  this  time  the  power  of  the  contestants  had 
seemed  about  evenly  balanced,  with  time  and  the 
greater  resources  apparently  on  the  side  of  the  Allies, 
though  actually,  so  great  were  the  resources  which 
Germany  had  seized,  time  was  working  against  them. 
Now  with  Russia  out  of  the  struggle,  Germany  be- 
came immediately,  it  would  seem,  stronger,  and  with- 
drawing most  of  her  forces  from  the  east  front,  pre- 
pared for  a  gigantic  offensive  finally  to  shatter  her  op- 
ponents. All  the  time  that  troops  were  moved  across 
Europe,  and  the  mighty  stroke  prepared,  submarines 
were  preying  on  the  life  of  Great  Britain,  and  threat- 
ening the  basis  of  the  power  of  the  Entente.  There 
was  only  one  bright  spot  in  all  this  dark  prospect :  the 
United  States  had  come  in  at  last,  with  her  great  re- 
sources and  mighty  industrial  power.  But  America 
came  late,  and  whether  she  had  come  in  time  or  not 
only  the  future  would  reveal.  It  had  taken  England 
herself  two  years  to  get  ready ;  it  might  take  America 
as  long. 

So,  during  the  winter  of  1917  and  the  following 
spring,  there  was  terrible  uncertainty  and  there  were 


428    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

crushing  burdens  for  the  Allies.  Italy  was  struck  and 
nearly  destroyed.  The  submarine  menace,  less  fright- 
ful than  at  first,  continued  unrelenting  and  cruel. 
The  supreme  effort  of  Ger.many  was  coming.  Mean- 
while upon  Britain,  as  the  very  heart  of  the  alliance, 
fell  enormous  tasks,  the  making  of  munitions  and 
more  munitions,  for  herself  and  her  friends,  the  build- 
ing of  ships  with  feverish  haste  to  stay  the  drain  of 
her  life  blood,  the  keeping  of  her  armed  forces  on  land 
and  on  sea,  and  enlarging  them  as  much  as  she  could. 
Very  desperate  was  the  need  for  men. 

The  English-speaking  peoples,  almost  all  of  them, 
responded  in  glorious  fashion.  In  the  British  Em- 
pire, including  the  dominions,  were  raised  7,500,000 
men.  America,  with  wisdom  bought  from  the  experi- 
ence of  others,  adopted  compulsory  and  universal  serv- 
ice at  the  start,  and  began  training  her  millions  also. 
Only  in  Ireland  and  in  the  Canadian  province  of  Que- 
bec was  there  unwillingness  to  take  proper  part. 
From  Quebec  with  its  French  inhabitants  scarcely 
any  soldiers  had  come  to  serve  in  the  war,  and  soon 
compulsory  service  was  adopted  in  Canada  partly  for 
the  purpose  of  making  these  people  do  what  others  had 
themselves  freely  done.  In  Ireland  after  170,000 
men  had  been  raised,  Ulster  contributing  more  than 
her  proportionate  share  of  them,  enlistments  were 
about  at  an  end,  and  Ireland  standing  aside  looked 
on  at  the  conflict.  Therefore  it  was  that  in  Britain 
sterner  demand  arose  that  the  compulsory  service  of 
Great  Britain  should  be  extended  to  Ireland  as  well. 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     429 

Unionist  Ulster  continued  to  be  not  unwilling  that 
conscription  should  be  imposed.  Early  in  February 
Sir  Edward  Carson  said  in  a  speech  in  Belfast  that  one 
of  the  greatest  mistakes  of  the  government  had 
been  in  not  applying  to  Ireland  the  treatment  given 
to  the  rest  of  the  United  Kingdom.  But  Celtic  Ire- 
land was  as  bitterly  opposed  as  before,  and  threatened 
resistance  if  ever  the  authorities  carried  conscription 
into  effect.  This  feeling  was  led  and  fostered  by  Sinn 
Feiners ;  it  had  grown  as  their  power  and  influence  in- 
creased, and  was  now  very  potent  all  over  the  island; 
but  it  was  shared  by  Nationalists  also. 

In  March,  1918,  the  Germans  suddenly  began  a 
terrible  offensive.  All  of  their  power  and  all  of  their 
strength  were  at  last  brought  to  bear  in  the  west  for 
one  supreme  effort.  Now  they  would  make  a  tri- 
umphant peace.  With  a  blow  that  seemed  like  un- 
loosing the  forces  of  hell  they  struck  out  from  St. 
Quentin  at  the  Allied  line  where  British  forces  had 
just  taken  position,  and  driving  through  heroic  re- 
sistance beat  their  opponents  as  British  armies  are 
seldom  defeated,  raced  on  almost  as  far  as  Amiens, 
and  nearly  opened  the  road  straight  to  Paris.  North, 
about  Arras  and  Vimy,  the  British  stood  like  a  rock; 
but  the  lines  oft  deemed  impregnable  had  been  broken 
at  a  blow,  and  other  blows  were  impending.  The  sav- 
age fighting  died  in  a  lull,  but  in  less  than  three  weeks 
came  another  stroke,  and  after  fearful  fighting  the 
British  were  pressed  back  until  Ypres  was  almost  lost, 
and  little  was  wanting  to  open  the  road  to  the  Chan- 


430    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

nel.  Again  the  enemy  was  halted,  but  he  had  got  the 
initiative  completely.  Darker  days  still  were  coming. 
It  was  the  very  crisis  of  the  struggle.  If  the  war 
was  not  to  be  won  by  the  Germans  before  the  Ameri- 
cans arrived,  then  the  Allies  must  put  into  the  contest 
every  man  they  could  muster. 

April  9,  the  prime  minister  presented  to  the  Com- 
mons proposals  for  bringing  forth  all  the  man  power 
of  the  nation.  From  the  great  industries  and  trades 
men  were  to  be  called;  the  age-limit  was  to  be  raised 
to  50,  in  certain  cases  to  55;  and  the  military  service 
acts  were  to  be  extended  to  Ireland  also.  He  said 
that  the  Convention  had  just  reported,  and  that  the 
ministry  would  shortly  submit  to  the  Commons  a 
measure  to  establish  self-government  there.  In  a 
crowded  House  these  announcements  were  received 
for  the  most  part  with  approval,  for  few  there  were 
who  did  not  realize  the  awful  gravity  of  the  moment. 
But  most  of  the  debate  which  followed  was  engrossed 
by  the  Irish  members,  who  would  hear  of  no  conscrip- 
tion made  thus  for  Ireland.  Mr.  Redmond,  who 
doubtless  would  have  led  the  opposition,  was  not 
there.  His  fine  presence  and  wise  and  noble  states- 
manship were  not  to  be  any  more.  The  hand  of  death 
had  been  laid  upon  him  and  his  brother.  To  Major 
Redmond  death  had  come  on  a  battlefield  in  Flan- 
ders; about  the  same  time  the  Nationalist  leader  had 
died,  crushed  and  embittered,  died  of  a  broken  heart, 
at  the  wreck,  so  it  seemed,  of  all  he  had  striven  for  so 
long  and  so  well.  The  Nationalists,  somewhat  in  con- 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     431 

fusion,  sat  now  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Dillon. 
He  declared  that  Mr.  Lloyd  George  would  get  no  re- 
cruits from  Ireland.  Mr.  Devlin,  alluding  to  the 
Convention,  said  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  im- 
pose compulsory  service  upon  Ireland  without  the 
assent  and  co-operation  of  an  Irish  parliament.  Ac- 
cording to  Mr.  O'Brien  the  proposal  was  a  declaration 
of  war  against  Ireland.  That  same  day  a  meeting  of 
Roman  Catholic  clergy  in  Dublin  passed  a  resolution 
against  conscription,  and  said  that  it  would  be  the 
worst  of  blunders  to  attempt  to  enforce  it. 

The  Military  Service  Bill  was  passed  rapidly 
through  all  its  stages,  and  obtained  huge  majorities  on 
second  and  third  reading.  Men  were  now  to  be  called 
from  18  to  55;  the  bill  might  be  extended  to  Ireland 
by  the  king  through  an  order  in  council.  On  second 
reading  Mr.  Dillon  attacked  the  measure  bitterly,  and 
challenged  the  government  to  try  Irish  sentiment  by  a 
plebiscite.  Mr.  Asquith  said  that  the  government 
had  twice  considered  such  a  measure  when  he  was 
prime  minister,  and  each  time  rejected  it.  Self-gov- 
ernment ought  first  to  be  given.  Mr.  Bonar  Law 
replying  said  that  there  was  absolute  necessity  for 
applying  conscription  to  Ireland,  and  that  the  feeling 
in  Great  Britain  was  very  strong  that  it  should  be 
done.  Two  days  later,  on  third  reading,  there  was 
again  a  spirited  debate.  Mr.  Henderson,  leader  of 
the  Labor  Party,  asked  the  government  whether,  if 
they  were  unable  to  forego  Irish  military  service  com- 
pelled by  law,  they  would  not  announce  that  the 


432          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

measure  was  to  be  put  into  effect  only  after  Home 
Rule  had  been  granted.  Mr.  Asquith  supported  this 
appeal.  Mr.  Devlin  declared  that  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  about  to  impose  a  blood-tax  on  Ireland,  and 
demanded  that  Irishmen  should  be  given  the  status  of 
the  men  of  Canada  and  Australia.  If  the  govern- 
ment would  bring  into  existence  an  Irish  parliament, 
the  heart  of  Ireland  would  be  touched;  he  himself 
would  be  the  first  to  serve  in  any  capacity.  Mr. 
Bonar  Law  concluded  the  debate.  The  Empire  was 
passing  through  a  deadly  peril.  Necessity  compelled 
conscription  in  Ireland.  The  government  would  try 
to  give  Home  Rule  at  once  now.  The  members  then 
approved  the  principle  of  Irish  conscription  by  281 
votes  to  165.  Irish  Nationalists  made  a  great  part 
of  the  minority.  On  the  other  hand,  Ulster  Unionists 
desired  such  a  provision,  protesting  that  Ireland 
should  take  a  just  share  in  supporting  the  Empire  in 
the  war.  But  they  were  still  bitterly  opposed  to 
Home  Rule.  Sir  Edward  Carson  had  already  de- 
clared that  the  government  was  confusing  the  con- 
scription and  the  Home  Rule  measures.  Now,  when 
the  Bill  was  in  committee,  he  said  that  the  ministry 
was  offering  the  Nationalists  Home  Rule  in  return 
for  conscription.  Ulster,  which  did  not  want  Home 
Rule,  had  been  supporting  conscription  all  along. 

The  report  of  the  Irish  Convention  and  the  debates 
in  parliament  were  obscured  by  the  rush  of  mightier 
events.  It  seemed  for  a  moment  that  Ypres  was  lost. 
The  British  commander  told  his  men  that  they  fought 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     433 

with  their  backs  to  the  wall,  and  his  words  re-echoing 
across  the  ocean,  in  America  it  was  said  that  civiliza- 
tion was  at  bay.  Here  was  no  time  for  parliamentary 
obstruction  or  constitutional  debate.  Every  man  was 
needed,  if  men  were  to  save  their  dearest  possessions. 
Irish-Americans  were  serving  loyally  in  the  new 
armies  of  the  United  States,  and  while  there  was  some 
opposition  to  Irish  conscription  in  a  few  American 
journals  and  on  the  part  of  many  Irish- Americans, 
most  of  the  press  and  some  Irish-Americans  talked 
now  of  the  duty  of  Ireland  and  of  the  part  which  they 
hoped  Ireland  would  play.  In  America  and  else- 
where, it  is  true,  there  was  much  feeling  that  the 
British  government  should  settle  the  Irish  matter  so 
far  as  giving  Ireland  Home  Rule  was  concerned,  and 
it  was  believed  that  the  government  was  pledged  to 
do  this,  and  ought  to  do  it  as  soon  as  might  be.  But 
stronger  and  stronger  also  was  the  feeling,  especially 
in  the  United  States,  that  the  question  was  a  compli- 
cated one,  in  respect  of  which  the  difficulties  of  the 
British  government  had  not  always  been  properly  con- 
sidered, and  that  certainly  in  such  a  time  Ireland  had 
her  duties  as  well  as  her  rights,  that  she  had  obligations 
no  less  than  Great  Britain,  and  that  it  was  an  unhappy 
spectacle  in  this  dreadful  moment  to  see  Ireland  tak- 
ing little  part  in  the  war,  and  resisting  the  conscription 
which  was  necessarily  being  applied  in  other  countries 
opposed  to  Germany  and  in  the  other  parts  of  the 
British  Isles. 

Ireland    was    unyielding,    however.     Nationalist 


434    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

members  of  the  House  of  Commons  resolved  to  remain 
in  Ireland  to  resist  the  enforcement  of  conscription, 
declaring  that  such  enforcement  without  the  consent 
of  Ireland  would  be  brutal  tyranny  and  oppression. 
Addressing  a  great  throng  in  Belfast,  Mr.  Devlin  ad- 
vised that  the  act  just  passed  be  in  no  way  recognized, 
and  that  no  man  should  register  his  name.  The  op- 
position which  had  been  begun  by  Sinn  Fein,  and 
then  been  taken  up  and  carried  further  by  the  Na- 
tionalist Party,  was  made  more  effective  and  carried 
further  still  by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy.  Every- 
where high  ecclesiastics  and  parish  priests  united  in 
advising  their  parishioners  to  resist.  At  Tipperary 
10,000  people  pledged  themselves,  and  the  priest  who 
administered  the  pledge  advised  them  to  keep  it  unto 
death.  At  Queenstown  there  were  many  who  stood 
with  heads  uncovered  to  repeat  the  oath  after  the 
Bishop  of  Cloyne.  It  was  no  long  time  before  the 
clergy  had  done  against  conscription  what  they  had 
once  done  against  Parnell,  and  what  they  had  pre- 
viously accomplished  for  O'Connell.  For  good  or  for 
evil,  resistance  to  conscription  had  been  made  the 
strongest  feeling  in  Ireland;  and  this  feeling,  as  so 
often  before,  was  being  guided  and  fostered  by  the 
priests,  whose  influence  often  was  decisive.  It  was 
very  different  in  Quebec,  where  after  a  bitter  opposi- 
tion had  been  made,  a  law  for  compulsory  service  was 
passed,  and  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  assisted  re- 
cruiting and  helped  to  restore  good  relations  between 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     435 

the  people  of  Quebec  and  the  other  inhabitants  of  the 
Dominion. 

Meanwhile  England,  rightly  from  her  point  of  view, 
prepared  to  enforce  the  new  law.  It  is  true  that  she 
proposed  to  give  Home  Rule  at  the  same  time,  but 
this  was  not  very  easy  to  do.  The  Convention  had 
presented  an  excellent  report,  but  unfortunately, 
while  a  majority  had  acceded,  the  report  was  nothing 
more  than  an  expression  of  opinion,  not  binding  upon 
Irishmen,  and  it  had  not  been  accepted  by  the  Ulster 
Unionists,  who  continued  as  before  the  principal  ob- 
stacle in  the  way.  Accordingly,  the  government  was 
faced  by  nearly  the  same  difficulties  as  in  1914.  Un- 
der the  circumstances  it  did  not  feel  that  it  could  en- 
act the  recommendations  of  the  Convention  into  a 
Home  Rule  law,  even  though  it  greatly  desired  to 
settle  the  Irish  question  by  giving  Home  Rule. 
Ulster  would  not  leave  the  United  Kingdom,  and 
Great  Britain  was  now  unwilling  to  coerce  her.  So 
there  seemed  nothing  to  do  but  attempt  to  find  some 
settlement  which  would  be  more  acceptable  to  all 
Irishmen,  and  this  was  very  difficult,  in  the  midst  of 
the  greater  things  happening  not  very  far  off  in 
France. 

Discontent  and  disorder  increased.  Again  the 
lead  seems  to  have  been  taken  by  Sinn  Feiners,  many 
of  whom  had  come  back  to  Ireland  at  the  time  of  the 
amnesty  preceding  the  Convention.  They  were  still 
as  they  had  been.  The  work  of  the  Convention,  with 


436    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

which  they  would  have  nothing  to  do,  had  appeased 
them  not  at  all.  Now  conscription  made  them  go 
farther  along  their  old  way.  It  is  asserted  that  they 
took  up  again  the  work  they  had  done  in  the  early 
part  of  1916.  In  May  the  lord  lieutenant  issued  a 
proclamation  declaring  that  there  was  a  pro-German 
conspiracy,  and  this  was  quickly  followed  by  the  raid- 
ing of  Sinn  Fein  headquarters  and  the  arrest  of  the 
leaders,  some  of  whom  had  had  part  in  the  Easter  Re- 
bellion. Presently  the  British  government  published 
from  the  documents  taken  evidence  purporting  to 
show  that  Sinn  Fein  had  entered  into  correspondence 
with  Germany  for  the  furtherance  of  its  measures. 

About  the  same  time  that  the  Sinn  Fein  treason  was 
announced  by  the  authorities,  the  Germans  made  an- 
other gigantic  assault,  and  breaking  through  the 
French  lines  at  Chemin  des  Dames,  rushed  forward 
until  they  came  to  the  Marne  once  more.  Rheims 
seemed  on  the  point  of  falling,  the  whole  line  might 
collapse,  another  thrust  like  it  and  the  Germans  would 
probably  win  Paris.  At  this  time  it  could  not  be 
known  that  fortune  was  about  to  turn,  swift  and  de- 
cisive, that  in  less  than  two  months  there  would  be  a 
million  Americans  in  France  to  assist,  to  encourage, 
to  inspire,  and  that  the  British  and  the  French,  stand- 
ing firm  against  the  next  German  assaults,  would  be- 
gin a  glorious  offensive  and,  with  assistance  from 
the  new  American  armies,  change  the  whole  course 
of  the  war.  As  yet  this  was  hid  in  the  future.  The 
Allies  were  at  the  nadir  of  the  war,  and  their  hearts 


QUESTION  OF  CONSCRIPTION     437 

might  well  break  with  discouragement  and  despair. 
But  there  was  little  sympathy  from  Ireland,  and  the 
heartless  words  of  Irish  members  in  the  Commons  at 
this  time  will  not  be  forgotten  for  a  great  while  to 
come. 

Conscription  in  Ireland  had  almost  led  to  bloodshed 
and  strife,  but  the  issue  was  avoided  now  largely  be- 
cause the  government  was  not  willing  to  press  it  to 
conclusion.  Compulsory  service  was  not  enforced, 
while  the  Irish  were  invited  to  make  up  their  quota  by 
enlistment.  Some  Irishmen  warmly  assisted,  but  lit- 
tle was  thus  accomplished.  And  while  recruits  came 
forward  slow,  and  in  scanty  numbers,  the  great  war 
suddenly  ended,  and  the  whole  matter  was  changed 
from  a  present  dangerous  dispute  to  one  of  those 
things,  so  frequent  with  Ireland  and  England,  thrust 
back  to  the  past,  but  still  potent  through  memory  to 
keep  the  two  peoples  apart.  For  notwithstanding 
the  improvement  of  late,  Ireland,  because  of  Sinn 
Fein  and  conscription,  was  farther  from  England  than 
ever  in  the  last  generation;  and  in  place  of  the  gener- 
ous sentiment  so  strong  shortly  before  in  the  hearts 
of  the  British  people  there  burned  now  feelings  of 
contempt  and  despite  and  sense  of  injustice  and 
wrong.  What  the  event  will  be  depends  greatly  on 
how  long  these  feelings  endure.  Many  things  in  these 
years  must  be  forgotten. 


CHAPTER  VI 

AMERICA,    GREAT    BRITAIN,    AND    THE   IRISH    QUESTION 

In  the  interests  of  the  Empire  I  feel  very  strongly  that  it 
is  imperative  that  the  Irish  question  should  be  settled  on 
lines  which  will  satisfy  the  sentiment  of  the  oversea  democ- 
racies, both  in  our  self-governing  Colonies  and  in  the  United 
States.  .  .  .  What  a  happiness  it  would  be  for  Ireland,  what 
a  happiness  it  would  be  for  England,  what  a  happiness  it 
would  be  for  the  whole  of  the  English-speaking  race,  if  this 
great  and  happy  reconciliation  could  be  effected  .  .  .  such 
a  result  .  .  .  would  bring  great  relief  and  an  increase  of 
new  strength  to  the  State,  and  .  .  .  once  accomplished  would 
bring,  not  only  to  the  United  Kingdom,  but  to  the  whole 
English-speaking  people,  advantages  and  blessings  the  value 
of  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  compute. 

Speech  of  Earl  Grey  in  the  House  of  Lords, 

January  27,  1913. 

IN  the  course  of  this  writing  I  have  assumed  that 
something  is  certainly  wrong  in  the  Irish  situa- 
tion, that  this  wrong  should  be  righted  as  soon  as  may 
be,  that  liberal  England  desires  very  much  to  find  a 
satisfactory  and  proper  solution,  that  the  British  peo- 
ple wish  to  do  all  they  can  to  assist  such  solution,  but 
that  there  are  enormous  difficulties  in  the  way,  not 
transient  and  superficial  but  fundamental  and  intrin- 
sic. I  believe  that  a  correct  appreciation  of  the  gen- 
eral bearing  of  the  question  and  its  difficulties  has  not 

438 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  439 

generally  existed  in  this  country,  partly  through  lack 
of  information,  partly  because  of  American  attitude 
towards  England,  and  partly  from  the  feeling  of 
Irish- Americans. 

The  relations  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  have  long  been  better  than  the  feeling  of  the 
British  and  American  peoples  for  each  other.  Since 
the  so-called  War  of  1812  there  has  been  no  actual  con- 
flict, and  disputes  have  all  been  settled  peaceably,  with 
constantly  better  spirit  of  compromise  and  good-will. 
Certainly  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  Britain 
and  the  United  States  trusted  each  other,  and  re- 
garded war  with  each  other  as  unthinkable.  So  good 
had  relations  become  that  statesmen  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic  began  to  look  forward  to  the  day  when 
there  would  be  some  sort  of  an  alliance  or  union. 

Actually,  however,  there  remained  a  good  deal  of 
coldness  and  disapproval.  Each  one  could  see  clearly 
the  faults  of  the  other,  and  was  disposed  to  judge  with 
the  harshness  which  members  of  the  same  family  some- 
times use.  It  is  difficult  to  know,  but  after  being  in 
England  for  a  while  I  was  convinced,  notwithstanding 
some  lamentable  and  offensive  exceptions  to  the  con- 
trary, that  Englishmen  had  developed  towards  us  a 
juster,  more  charitable,  and  kindlier  feeling  than  we 
had  for  them.  Certain  it  is  that  while  Americans 
realized  from  the  first  the  splendid  merits  of  the 
French  in  this  war,  they  had  at  the  start  no  great  en- 
thusiasm about  England  and  her  equally  magnificent 
achievements,  and  that  while  happily  with  many  this  is 


440    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

no  longer  so,  yet  the  change  was  slow  and  for  some 
time  not  marked  by  any  warm  or  generous  expression. 
This  is  partly  because  we  know  the  French  much  less 
well,  so  that  when  we  admire,  we  admire  more  ex- 
travagantly; but  it  is  also  because  of  other  things 
which  go  back  for  a  great  many  years. 

Americans  separated  from  England  violently  in 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  this  struggle  and  the 
other  one  later  left  in  England  a  feeling  that  there  had 
been  base  ingratitude,  that  a  thankless  child  had  aban- 
doned its  parent  and  friend  as  soon  as  it  could,  and 
in  the  United  States  strong  conviction  that  Americans 
had  thrown  off  the  shackles  which  a  tyrant  had  striven 
to  impose.  Old  ties  of  Ic/ve  and  devotion  being  sun- 
dered, they  were  presently  half  obliterated  and  for- 
gotten. Inevitably  bitterness  and  recrimination 
arose.  The  people  of  Great  Britain,  properly  from 
their  point  of  view,  looked  upon  Americans,  whom 
they  did  not  know  very  well,  as  rude  and  uncultured, 
as  rough  and  uncouth,  as  pioneers  and  beginners,  un- 
developed and  provincial;  and  there  was  certainly  a 
great  deal  of  truth  in  all  this.  But  from  their  own 
point  of  view  Americans,  while  resenting  the  criticisms 
of  British  travellers  and  writers  with  all  the  quick 
sensitiveness  of  newcomers  in  the  presence  of  those 
well-established,  yet  looked  upon  Englishmen  as  slug- 
gish people  who  unlike  themselves  endured  govern- 
ment by  aristocracy  and  king.  Once  the  separation 
was  complete  there  was  much  divergence  between  the 
two  branches  of  the  race;  for  Americans  advanced 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  441 

somewhat  faster  along  the  road  to  democracy  than  the 
people  of  Britain,  and  often  between  the  American 
government  and  the  aristocratic  authorities  of  Eng- 
land there  was  little  sympathy  and  small  understand- 
ing. But  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  people  of  the  British  Isles  developed  one  of  the 
best  democracies  in  the  world,  and  this,  along  with 
changed  position  in  international  affairs,  made  Eng- 
land constantly  more  sympathetic  toward  America 
and  ever  more  desirous  of  her  friendship. 

What  stood  in  the  way  now  was  the  force  of  tradi- 
tion and  evil  memories  of  things  long  since  done  or 
for  a  great  while  misunderstood.  Old  belief  that  the 
United  States  had  won  freedom  from  a  hateful  Eng- 
lish tyrant,  that  Englishmen  had  not  the  free  govern- 
ment which  Americans  had  won  for  themselves,  that 
England  was  not  really  friendly  to  the  United  States, 
but  ever  on  the  alert  to  better  her  own  selfish  interests, 
these  ideas  were  widely  held  by  many  of  the  less  well- 
informed  in  America,  whose  only  knowledge  came 
from  inferior  text-books  filled  with  archaic  mistakes, 
and  whose  prejudices  were  fostered  by  commoner 
politicians  playing  on  that  ignorant  patriotism  so 
often  helpful  to  scoundrels. 

To  all  this  must  be  added  the  fact  that  undoubtedly 
a  great  deal  of  vicious  propaganda  was  done  before 
the  war,  rather  through  dupes  than  with  bribes,  pos- 
sible from  poor  acquaintance  and  misapprehension. 
Americans  and  British,  much  alike,  are  somewhat  un- 
like, and  the  differences  were  used  here  to  strengthen 


442    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

a  belief  that  Englishmen  were  insular,  opinionated, 
obstinate,  slow,  and  obtuse,  lacking  in  taste,  smug, 
hypocritical,  offensive.  Not  long  ago  a  book  was  pub- 
lished to  maintain  that  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica 
was  spreading  many  of  these  worse  qualities  among 
us  and  hiding  from  us  better  things  elsewhere.  It  is 
certain  that  Englishmen  have  faults,  sometimes  not 
pleasant;  but  if  Americans  are  ignorant  of  their  own 
it  is  from  lack  of  sophistication  often  characteristic  of 
young  peoples.  Far  more  important  it  is  that  Amer- 
icans and  British,  different  though  they  are  in  many 
ways,  and  faulty  as  they  both  are  in  some  ways,  are 
yet  very  like  to  each  other,  are  more  closely  related 
than  any  other  great  peoples  in  the  world,  and  are, 
along  with  the  French,  who  can  never  be  quite  so  close 
or  intelligible  to  either  of  them,  the  foremost  expo- 
nents of  democracy,  humane  civilization,  international 
honesty,  and  fair  play  in  the  world.  There  can  be  no 
better  task  for  the  enlightened  people  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  British  Empire  than  to  try  to  under- 
stand each  other  better,  to  appreciate  fundamental 
common  good  qualities,  and  act  together  hereafter. 
It  has  been  wisely  said  that  herein,  most  probably,  lies 
the  best  hope  for  a  real  league  of  nations  in  the  future. 
There  has  been  one  particular  obstacle  to  the  better 
relations  of  America  and  England  the  magnitude  of 
which  it  is  difficult  to  know,  and  that  is  the  hostility 
toward  Britain  of  the  Irish  men  and  women  who  set- 
tled in  our  midst,  and  whose  descendants  now  make 
up  one  of  the  principal  stocks  in  the  United  States. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  443 

Almost  all  of  them  went  from  Ireland  in  the  midst  of 
discrimination  and  oppression  or  at  a  time  of  economic 
hardship  and  terrible  disaster.  The  Scotch-Irish, 
who  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  resistance  of  the 
colonies  in  the  Revolutionary  period,  went  out  of  Ire- 
land because  of  the  old  industrial  and  commercial  re- 
strictions which  England  imposed  in  the  Mercantile 
era.  Many  of  them  brought  unyielding  hostility  to- 
wards England;  and  Molyneux's  old  pamphlet  may 
have  been  remembered  by  those  who  would  pay  no 
taxes  without  representation.  Irishmen  eagerly  abet- 
ted the  revolt  against  England,  and  some  of  them  took 
a  prominent  part  in  the  struggle.  "Charles  Thomp- 
son of  Strabane  was  secretary  of  the  Continental 
Congress.  Eight  Irishmen,  passionate  organisers  of 
the  revolt,  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
After  the  war  an  Irishman  prepared  the  Declaration 
for  publication  from  Jefferson's  rough  draft;  an 
Irishman's  son  first  publicly  read  it ;  an  Irishman  first 
printed  and  published  it."  l  Through  the  long  years 
when  hostility  towards  England  was  slowly  diminish- 
ing, it  was  often  strengthened  again  by  Irishmen, 
and  it  was  enormously  increased  when  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  century  famine  and  disease  and  the  clear- 
ances drove  such  great  numbers  of  Irishmen  out  of 
the  old  country  mostly  to  the  United  States.  They 
left  their  home  in  the  deepest  misery,  and  thev  en  me 
to  their  new  one  with  the  utmost  bitterness.  There 
they  worked  well,  prospered,  and  gathered  to  them- 

i  Mrs.  Green,  Irish  Nationality,  p.  181. 


444    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

selves  consequence  and  power.  They  took  a  very  im- 
portant part  in  the  Civil  War,  fighting  for  the  North, 
and  in  the  years  after  they  were  not  only  one  of  the 
largest  elements  in  the  population  of  America,  but 
acquired  a  political  power  even  more  significant  than 
their  numbers.  In  the  fast  developing  and  often  ill- 
managed  cities  they  often  got  political  direction 
largely  to  themselves,  bringing  the  spirit  if  not  the 
form  of  tribal  and  clan  government,  the  personal  re- 
lationship of  henchman  to  boss,  rather  than  effective 
municipal  management.  And  their  political  power 
was  seen  in  Congress  itself,  where  their  influence  was 
always  potent,  and  where  sometimes  they  had,  what 
their  brethren  abroad  got  in  London,  the  balance  of 
power.  Numberless  Irishmen  had  become  successful 
business  men,  lawyers,  and  men  of  affairs,  and  the 
finer  qualities  of  the  Celtic  race,  vivacity,  brilliancy, 
warmness  of  heart,  endeared  them  to  their  fellows  in 
the  commonwealth.  Therefore  they  were  able  to  ex- 
ert much  influence  and  even  control  in  politics  and 
foreign  policy,  and  this  influence  was  on  occasion 
nearly  always  exerted  against  Great  Britain,  and  is 
now  thought  by  many  to  have  been  one  of  the  princi- 
pal factors  in  keeping  England  and  America  apart. 
Such  estimate  is  always  difficult,  and  perhaps  their 
part  has  been  exaggerated,  but  certain  it  is  that  British 
statesmen  working  for  closer  relations  have  often 
found  their  efforts  mysteriously  thwarted,  and  Amer- 
ican statesmen  themselves  have  confessed  that  they 
were  hindered  by  Irish-Americans. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  445 

Irish-American  affection  for  Ireland  is  a  beautiful 
thing,  and  the  dislike  of  England  in  the  past  is  at 
least  understandable;  but  hatred  of  Britain  ought  to 
have  softened  with  time  and  lessened  as  Ireland  was 
properly  treated.  This  has  not  been  so  because 
Irishmen  in  America,  when  they  thought  they  were 
decrying  evils  of  the  present  very  often  inveighed 
against  wrongs  in  the  past.  They  lived  far  away 
from  England  and  Ireland,  and  really  knew  as  little 
about  Irish  matters  and  British  matters  as  Americans 
generally  knew  about  foreign  affairs.  They  were,  in- 
deed, constantly  informed  and  re-informed,  but  their 
teachers  were  usually  extremists  who  had  left  the 
British  Isles  to  preach  violence  and  hatred  in 
America,  and  certain  Irish-American  newspapers 
which  were  founded  originally  on  hatred,  and  con- 
tinued to  thrive  by  stimulating  hatred  and  keeping 
bitterness  alive.  It  will  be  a  hopeful  sign  both  of  the 
informedness  and  the  proper  spirit  of  our  Celtic  fel- 
low-citizens when  many  of  these  journals,  if  continu- 
ing in  the  same  spirit,  find  that  they  have  too  few 
readers  to  justify  further  appearance.  Irishmen  in 
this  country  owe  it  to  themselves,  to  Ireland,  and  to 
the  United  States,  to  study  the  Irish  question  not  in 
the  bitter  and  narrow  way  it  has  been  so  repeatedly 
taught  here,  but  with  proper  consideration  of  the 
numerous  factors  involved  and  the  manifold  diffi- 
culties in  the  way,  so  that  they  may  assist  with  coun- 
sel and  wisdom  in  solving  it,  for  the  good  of  Ireland, 
the  British  Empire,  and  all  of  the  English-speaking 


446          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

peoples.  Their  assistance  is  vitally  important  and 
earnestly  desired.  Certainly  the  Irish  matter  will 
never  be  properly  adjusted  through  blind  denuncia- 
tion and  ignorant  hardness  of  heart. 

In  so  far  as  Irish-Americans  possessed  great  power 
in  the  United  States  their  attitude  was  of  funda- 
mental importance  in  the  early  part  of  the  war.  So 
enormous  was  German  military  power,  and  so  huge 
the  strength  long  prepared,  that  only  a  succession  of 
interventions,  that  might  not  have  transpired,  kept 
Germany  from  triumph.  Had  Belgium  not  resisted, 
France  might  have  been  crushed  at  once.  France 
must  have  succumbed,  and  after  her  Russia,  had  the 
British  Empire  not  entered  the  war.  After  a  bitter 
struggle  it  was  probable  that  the  resources  controlled 
by  the  Central  powers  would  give  them  the  victory  in 
the  end,  if  the  mighty  weight  of  the  United  States 
were  not  brought  in  against  them.  It  is  evident  now 
that  Germany  had  long  laid  her  plans  to  keep  out  the 
United  States,  and  some  of  her  efforts  had  to  do  with 
making  the  American  people  hostile  to  Great  Britain, 
especially  through  prejudice  felt  by  Irish- Americans. 
We  have  passed  through  the  years  of  doubt  and  inde- 
cision in  which  at  last  these  machinations  came  to 
naught,  with  most  of  our  people  turning  from  her 
crimes  with  horror,  and  in  the  end  willing  to  follow 
their  great  leader  as  far  as  honor  and  necessity  led 
them.  During  these  years  the  sentiment  of  Irish- 
Americans  was,  on  the  whole,  very  fine.  Some  irre- 
concilable people  seem  to  have  lent  themselves  to 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  447 

German  intrigue,  if  they  did  not  take  Germany's 
gold;  some  of  the  radicals  urged  Irish  independence 
as  they  would  support  a  compromise  peace  or  a 
Bolshevik  Russia;  and  some  of  the  American  Sinn 
Feiners  apparently  abetted  German  plotting  to  make 
rebellion  and  disorder  in  Ireland.  But  as  far  as  one 
may  judge,  most  Irishmen  here  sympathized  warmly 
with  the  Allies,  shrank  from  the  outrages  of  Ger- 
many, and  if  they  did  not  admire  and  respect  Great 
Britain,  yet  scarcely  attempted  to  keep  America  from 
helping  her  and  the  Allied  cause,  and  once  America 
was  in  the  war  gave  eager  and  loyal  service.  Well 
would  it  have  been  had  Irishmen  in  Ireland  taken  so 
fine  a  part  as  their  brethren  in  the  United  States. 
When  the  fate  of  the  British  Empire  was,  perhaps, 
trembling  in  the  balance,  along  with  the  fate  of  all  the 
free  nations  of  the  world,  Irish-Americans  might  have 
done  much  to  keep  America  from  assisting  France  and 
England.  In  so  far  as  they  did  not  do  this  their  con- 
duct has  helped  to  save  democracy  and  freedom,  and 
they  have  allowed  the  United  States  and  the  British 
Empire  to  come  into  closer  relations  than  ever  before. 
England  and  the  United  States  will  remain  in 
closer  communion  if  Americans  and  British  under- 
stand better  the  difficulties  and  problems  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  There  has  been  no  greater  obstacle 
than  the  Irish  question.  I  believe  that  a  better  com- 
prehension of  it  would  cause  most  Americans  to  view 
it  somewhat  differently  than  heretofore,  with  sym- 
pathy for  the  perplexities  of  England  as  well  as  for 


448    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  aspirations  of  Ireland;  and  it  is  not  impossible 
that  Irish-Americans  viewing  the  matter  more  wisely 
might  cause  Irishmen  at  home  to  see  it  more  broadly 
and  more  truly  also. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Ireland  once  suffered  griev- 
ous wrongs.  But  most  Irishmen  have  been  inclined 
to  speak  solely  of  these  wrongs,  and  Irish-Americans 
have  heard  little  of  anything  else.  Englishmen  now- 
adays admit  them,  they  have  professed  repentance, 
and  tried  to  make  atonement  for  the  past.  Neverthe- 
less it  is  evident  that  these  evils  in  former  times  arose 
not  merely  because  of  exceeding  hardness  and  bru- 
tality on  the  part  of  Englishmen,  but  because  of  dif- 
ferent conditions  and  worse  usages  formerly.  In  the 
course  of  the  nineteenth  century  England  became 
liberal  and  democratic,  and  one  after  another  the  evils 
were  removed  from  Ireland  and  remedies  applied. 
Certainly  some  things  remain  to  be  amended;  but 
where  in  the  world  do  they  not?  Ireland  is  not  Ar- 
cadia— much  of  the  land  is  naturally  poor ;  grievances 
still  remain,  but  all  improvement  needs  time  for  com- 
pletion. The  British  people,  before  the  war  absorbed 
their  attention,  were  doing  their  best  to  improve  con- 
ditions in  all  respects  in  all  of  the  British  Isles;  and 
I  am  convinced  that  the  prevailing  sentiment  was  to 
do  for  Ireland  whatever  was  helpful  and  right  as  soon 
as  it  could  be  done.  In  the  past  Ireland  was  unfor- 
tunate, and  she  was  treated  very  badly.  It  is  more 
important  in  this  present  time  to  know  that  she  is  not 
treated  badly  or  unjustly,  that  while  things  remain  to 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  449 

be  amended,  very  much  has  been  done,  that  she  has 
no  fundamental  grievance  arising  from  England,  un- 
less it  be  held  that  it  is  wrong  not  to  allow  her  to  es- 
tablish a  nation  completely  independent  and  separate, 
and  that  what  her  people  need  most  of  all  is  industry, 
and  good  order,  and  time,  for  achieving  the  realiza- 
tion of  all  their  best  interests. 

Sinn  Fein  and  its  idea  of  the  complete  independ- 
ence of  Ireland  I  have  tried  to  discuss  sympathetically, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  Sinn  Fein.  But  from  all 
other  points  of  view  than  its  own  I  believe  some  of  its 
plan  to  be  wrong  and  unwise.  All  of  the  influence  of 
geography,  of  history  for  the  past  four  hundred  years, 
and  of  dominant  modern  conditions,  make  of  the  Brit- 
ish Isles  one  group  and  one  unit.  Tearing  them  apart 
would  be  in  direct  opposition  to  these  forces.  As 
things  have  hitherto  been  in  this  world  the  separation 
of  Ireland  from  Great  Britain  would  most  probably 
come  only  with  the  destruction  of  the  British  Empire, 
or  else  be  symptomatic  of  near  dissolution.  Maybe 
a  new  era  is  at  hand  in  which  there  will  be  no  more 
wars  or  fear  of  war,  no  future  international  rivalries 
and  danger,  and  if  that  come  to  pass  then  Ireland  will 
no  longer  necessarily  be  so  grave  a  consideration  to 
Great  Britain;  but  as  yet  we  can  only  desire  and 
strive  to  bring  about,  not  make  our  decisions  from 
premises  hoped  for  but  still  to  be  established.  Geo- 
graphically Ireland  lies  right  across  the  most  impor- 
tant sea-routes  of  Great  Britain;  strategically  it  can 
always  be  a  threat  during  time  of  war,  and  it  has 


450    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

always  been  an  inviting  base  for  an  enemy's  flank  at- 
tack. That  is  the  fundamental  reason  why  England 
has  striven  so  hard  to  possess  it ;  that  is  the  reason  why 
she  must  and  she  will  control  it.  No  people  placed 
in  Great  Britain,  unless  sunk  in  cowardice  and  sloth, 
would  not  fight  to  the  death  rather  than  see  a  hostile 
Ireland  independent  and  separate,  or  not  view  with 
dismay  even  one  lukewarm  and  neutral.  And  that 
is  exactly  why  a  Germany,  who  cared  nothing  for  the 
rights  of  other  peoples  and  seized  their  lands  wher- 
ever she  could,  was  so  anxious  that  Ireland  should  get 
independence.  With  such  an  Ireland  in  any  way  hos- 
tile to  England  never  again  could  England  make  con- 
test with  Germany.  Well  did  the  dupes  of  Germany 
and  the  haters  of  Britain  understand  this.  "Eng- 
land, enclosed  between  a  hostile  Ireland  and  a  hostile 
European  power,  such  as  Germany,  would  be  in  a 
position  of  grave  peril  as  regards  her  food  supplies," 
said  one  who  wished  Germany  well.  "Indisputably 
Ireland  is  the  gateway  of  Europe,  but  she  is  also  the 
keystone  of  British  power  and  dominion  on  the  high 
seas  of  the  world.  When  Ireland  passes  out  of  Eng- 
lish possession  the  sun  will  have  set  forever  on  the 
British  Empire."  2  Other  things  being  equal,  it  has 
to  be  considered  that  the  proper  interests  of  the  forty 
millions  of  Great  Britain  outweigh  those  of  the  four 
millions  of  Ireland;  and  if  a  sacrifice  has  to  be  made 
it  is  better  that  the  aspirations  of  a  few  be  denied  than 
the  safety  of  ten  times  as  many. 

2  McGuire,  What  Could  Germany  Do  for  Ireland?  pp.  126,  127. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  451 

Very  true,  if  Irishmen  were  oppressed  and  trampled 
upon  as  were  the  people  of  Bosnia  or  Posen,  if  their 
language  were  proscribed,  if  opportunities  were  with- 
held, if  they  were  denied  any  share  in  the  govern- 
ment, if  they  were  constantly  treated  as  inferiors  with 
contumely  and  contempt,  then  it  might  be  very  well 
for  the  lovers  of  Ireland  to  declare  that  the  evil  be- 
havior of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  forfeited  the 
claims  which  Great  Britain  could  properly  make. 
But  Ireland  is  not  now  maltreated:  Irishmen  have 
before  the  law  exactly  the  same  status  and  privileges 
which  other  people  have  in  the  British  Isles;  they  con- 
trol their  own  local  affairs ;  they  have  such  religion  as 
they  please  unmolested;  the  British  government  puts 
no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  their  learning  and  speak- 
ing the  old  Gaelic  tongue  if  they  desire  it;  and  they 
have,  so  far  as  the  government  is  concerned,  the  same 
economic  opportunities  as  have  other  people  in  the 
United  Kingdom. 

In  short,  Great  Britain  cannot  with  respect  to  her 
own  proper  interests  permit  Ireland  to  effect  separa- 
tion and  be  independent,  unless  international  rela- 
tions become  very  different,  since  her  safety  and  na- 
tional existence  are  closely  connected  with  Ireland 
whenever  there  is  war;  and  Ireland  is  not  so  treated 
that  Britain  can  be  held  to  forego  these  considerations. 
Moreover,  geographical  and  economic  ties  work  to 
draw  England  and  Ireland  together.  If  Ireland  and 
Great  Britain  were  not  in  a  United  Kingdom,  it 
would  certainly  be  the  first  task  of  the  wisest  men 


452    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

in  both  countries  to  bring  about  some  union  between 
them.  They  ought  then  most  certainly  to  be  trying 
to  effect  a  federation  even  as  now  the  extremists  wish 
to  bring  about  separation.  Those  who  admire  the 
British  Empire  as  one  of  the  best  and  most  beneficent 
organizations  in  the  world,  and  who  believe  that  de- 
mocracy and  freedom  will  be  strengthened  in  the  fu- 
ture through  a  strong  British  Empire  and  the  great 
English-speaking  commonwealths  in  other  parts  of 
the  world  acting  together,  will  not  wish  to  see  Ire- 
land achieve  an  independence  which  Great  Britain 
cannot  allow. 

Local  autonomy,  self-government,  or  Home  Rule, 
whatever  we  call  it,  is  another  matter.  If  Home  Rule 
is  sought  merely  as  a  stepping-stone  to  separation, 
Englishmen  must  and  should  oppose  it;  but  if  Irish- 
men who  are  willing  to  remain  loyally  in  the  Empire 
yet  desire  to  -have  control  of  Irish  affairs  in  their 
hands,  the  best  opinion  of  the  world  is  that  they 
should  have  it,  and  I  believe  it  is  the  intention  of  Eng- 
lishmen also  that  they  shall  have  it.  The  present  sys- 
tem is  neither  so  bad  nor  so  unfair  as  represented 
by  partisan  writers;  but  in  accordance  with  the  best 
of  our  traditions  Irishmen  should  control  their  own 
affairs  in  their  own  way  if  they  wish  to  do  so.  If  it  is 
true  that  Ireland  is  essentially  a  colony,  then  she 
should  have  as  soon  as  possible  the  status  of  a  self- 
governing  dominion.  The  principal  obstacle  now  re- 
maining is  not  reluctance  of  the  British  people  but 
differences,  hitherto  insuperable,  between  Ulster  and. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  453 

the  rest  of  the  island.  Surely  in  better  times  a  solu- 
tion of  this  difficulty  will  be  found.  If  all  else  fail,  it 
may  be  that  the  question  can  be  settled  ultimately  by 
an  expedient  approved  long  ago  by  Chamberlain,  sup- 
ported more  recently  by  Lord  Grey  and,  so  it  is  said, 
by  Sir  Edward  Carson,  and  of  late  considered  by  Mr. 
Lloyd  George,  not  Irish  Home  Rule  but  federalism 
or  local  control  of  affairs,  not  only  in  Ireland  but 
rather  in  Scotland,  in  Wales,  in  parts  of  England,  in 
Ulster,  and  in  the  other  part  of  Ireland.  As  things 
are  at  present  it  is  no  more  unreasonable  for  Great 
Britain  to  hold  Ireland  than  it  would  be  for  Ireland 
to  hold  an  unwilling  Ulster.  We  had  such  a  prob- 
lem once  in  the  United  States :  during  the  Civil  War 
West  Virginia  was  made  a  separate  state.  It  might 
be  a  splendid  thing  for  Irishmen  if  all  Ireland  could 
unite  under  its  own  Home  Rule;  but  if  this  cannot 
be  brought  about,  there  might  not  be  unconquerable 
objection  to  having  the  two  parts  of  Ireland  mem- 
bers among  a  larger  number  of  federal  divisions  of 
the  United  Kingdom.  Federalization  would  be  very 
advantageous  to  the  government  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, for  the  parliament  at  Westminster  is  now  over- 
whelmed by  the  mass  of  business,  much  of  it  Imperial, 
but  a  great  deal  unimportant  and  local.  The  legis- 
lators cannot  attend  to  it  all  properly.  Often  they 
give  only  scant  attention  to  matters  concerning  Wales, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  or  the  Midlands,  but  are  obliged 
to  give  so  much  that  they  have  insufficient  time  for 
what  affects  all  the  Empire.  Federalism  and  the  dev- 


454    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

olution  of  local  business  to  local  governing  bodies,  in 
other  words,  Home  Rule  for  various  parts  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  would  leave  the  great  parliament 
free  to  give  all  of  itself  to  the  governing  of  all.  To 
this  the  great  objection  is  that  Ireland  outside  of 
Unionist  Ulster  is  not  willing  to  have  Ireland  divided. 
In  some  form,  however,  I  predict  with  confidence  that 
Home  Rule  will  certainly  be  given. 

Some  people  believe  the  accusations  of  bad  faith 
made  by  Sinn  Feiners  and  Nationalist  partisans,  say- 
ing that  it  is  evident  Great  Britain  has  no  intention 
of  giving  Home  Rule,  since  after  so  many  promises 
and  so  many  years  it  has  not  yet  come,  that  Ireland 
has  been  merely  cajoled  and  deceived,  and  that  Eng- 
land took  all  she  could  from  John  Redmond  and 
afterwards  cast  him  away.  There  are  no  proofs 
whatever  for  such  assertions,  and  they  can  only  be 
made  by  telling  one  side  of  the  matter  and  ignoring  a 
great  many  factors.  So  far  had  Home  Rule  action 
gone  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  that  the  party  in 
power  was  about  to  pass  the  law,  as  it  did  shortly 
after,  and  appeared  determined  to  force  it  through, 
even  though  many  Englishmen  and  a  considerable 
section  of  Irishmen  themselves  were  strongly  opposed 
to  it.  It  seemed  that  Ireland  was  to  get  Home  Rule 
even  though  it  entailed  civil  war. 

At  this  moment  came  the  great  war.  England  was 
unready  and  in  the  greatest  danger ;  Germany  had  pre- 
pared unceasingly,  and  the  preparations  included 
every  secret  device  and  every  expedient  of  bad  faith 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  455 

in  the  countries  she  was  going  to  fight.  In  Belgium 
and  France  artillery  platforms  had  been  secretly  laid 
for  sudden  military  use;  the  whole  world  was  filled 
with  spies,  propagandists,  and  agents  of  destruction; 
everywhere  treachery  and  organized  villainy  had  been 
industriously  engaged  in  corrupting,  undermining, 
and  preparing  destruction.  These  things  are  better 
known  now  than  they  could  be  then;  but  as  soon  as 
the  war  began  it  was  evident  that  wherever  there  was 
chance  of  stirring  up  disaffection  and  creating  dis- 
turbance among  discontented  or  recalcitrant  people, 
German  agents  had  been  untiringly  active.  If  Ger- 
many could  bring  it  about,  there  would  be  troubles  for 
France  in  Morocco,  for  the  United  States  with 
Mexico  and  Japan,  for  Italy  in  Tripoli,  and  for  the 
British  Empire  in  India,  Egypt,  and  Ireland.  Now 
conditions  in  Ireland  at  the  beginning  of  1914  were 
such  that  Germany  might  have  great  hope  based  upon 
them.  There  might  be  civil  war  between  Ulster  and 
the  Nationalists,  if  Home  Rule  were  put  into  effect. 
Germany  certainly  counted  on  this.  On  the  other 
hand  there  were  some  who  cared  nothing  for  Home 
Rule  but  who  wanted  to  dissolve  all  connection  with 
Great  Britain,  and  who  would  welcome  the  assistance 
of  any  power  to  bring  it  about.  Actually  within  two 
years  Sinn  Fein  did  begin  a  rebellion  at  one  of  the 
darkest  moments  of  the  struggle,  and  was  willing  to 
accept  help  from  Germany  to  make  the  rebellion  a 
success.  Moreover,  as  the  naval  warfare  developed 
and  submarines  preyed  upon  British  commerce,  they 


456    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

began  to  operate  about  the  coast  of  Ireland,  and  they 
would  have  got  the  greatest  conceivable  subvention 
in  their  work  had  the  shores  of  Ireland  been  opened 
to  their  use.  The  great  trade-routes  from  Glasgow, 
Liverpool,  and  London  went  past  the  north  and 
south  ends  of  Ireland,  from  which  submarines  could 
easily  cut  them.  All  down  the  west  coast  of  the  is- 
land, from  beyond  Lough  Swilly  to  Queenstown, 
there  were  deep  bays  and  indentations,  ideal  lurking 
places  for  submarines,  where  they  might,  if  the  in- 
habitants ashore  wished,  very  well  receive  supplies 
and  assistance.  All  this  being  so,  and  there  being 
some  people  in  Ireland  not  loyal  to  Great  Britain  and 
others  who  were  hostile  and  declared  they  would  wel- 
come the  Germans,  it  would  have  been  a  very  rash 
thing  for  Britain  to  relax  the  strictest  control  over  the 
country  so  long  as  the  dangers  of  war  time  continued. 
There  was  little  doubt  that  in  1914  most  Irishmen 
were  loyal,  some  of  them  enthusiastically  so.  Most  of 
them  could  certainly  be  trusted.  But  with  some  of 
them  disloyal,  and  with  German  intrigue  what  it  was, 
with  the  stake  so  great  and  the  danger  so  terrible, 
no  chance  ought  to  have  been  taken.  And  further- 
more, even  if  Ulster  and  Nationalist  Ireland  had  been 
able  to  agree  on  Home  Rule,  and  even  if  both  of 
them  had  had  the  best  of  intentions,  giving  such  a 
thing  during  the  continuance  of  the  war  would  have 
brought  in  one  of  those  dangerous  periods  of  transi- 
tion in  which  disloyalty  and  treachery  ever  find  their 
best  chance.  It  is  said  that  German  submarines  did 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  457 

get  some  assistance  on  the  Irish  coast,  as  it  was.  In 
the  confusion,  however  slight,  of  the  setting  up  of  a 
new  system  of  government,  and  the  loosening  of  old 
control,  the  disaffected  elements  might  have  been  able 
to  go  much  further,  and  bring  about  what  would  have 
been  fatal  to  Great  Britain  and  the  Allies.  Herein, 
I  believe,  is  the  principal  cause  of  the  reluctance  to 
give  Home  Rule  after  the  beginning  of  the  war. 

It  is  very  true,  as  some  have  argued,  that  once  the 
Boers  had  been  disaffected,  and  their  loyalty  had  been 
got  by  wisely  and  generously  giving  them  that  which 
they  wanted,  by  virtually  yielding  them  control  over 
South  Africa,  by  giving  them  and  the  rest  of  the 
population  Home  Rule.  It  is  true,  the  result  was 
excellent.  In  a  few  years  they  became  loyal  and 
devoted  members  of  the  Empire,  and  when  the  great 
war  broke  out  proved  their  loyalty  by  standing  beside 
Great  Britain  and  themselves  waging  war  in  her  be- 
half. Surely  the  experiment  worked  well;  but  until 
the  event,  it  was  not  certain  that  this  happy  result 
would  ensue.  Usually,  we  like  to  think,  fine  and  gen- 
erous treatment  begets  gratitude  and  good  faith;  but 
it  is  not  always  so.  It  could  not  be  absolutely  cer- 
tain that  if  a  great  conflict  broke  out  the  Boers  would 
not  stand  by  in  cool  indifference  or  even  take  the  in- 
dependence which  they  had  failed  to  keep  in  the 
South  African  War.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  some  of 
the  Boer  irreconcilables  did  unfurl  the  standard  of 
revolt,  as  the  Germans  had  hoped.  It  is  important 
to  remember,  however,  that  with  South  Africa  Britain 


458          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

was  taking  a  chance  which  could  in  no  way  bring  to 
her  complete  and  irreparable  disaster.  But  if  such 
a  chance  were  taken  with  respect  to  Ireland  the  result 
might  be  good,  and  perhaps  it  would  have  been,  but 
not  certainly;  if  it  had  been  bad,  the  disaster  could 
easily  have  brought  the  destruction  of  the  British 
Empire  with  it. 

All  these  things  must,  I  think,  in  fairness  be  taken 
into  account  when  people  say  that  England  has  led 
Ireland  on  in  the  years  since  1914,  giving  her  nothing 
of  what  had  been  promised,  breaking  pledges  and  de- 
ceiving her.  And  yet,  even  after  it  was  certain  that 
Sinn  Feiners  worked  against  Britain  and  spoke  for 
Germany,  after  the  Easter  Rebellion,  after  German 
submarines  had  got  petrol  and  supplies  on  the  coast, 
England  did  declare  her  willingness  that  Home  Rule 
should  be  given  at  once,  none  the  less,  if  only  Irish- 
men themselves  could  agree  about  it.  At  her  sug- 
gestion a  Convention  of  Irishmen  was  held,  and  Brit- 
ain proclaimed  that  she  would  be  very  glad  if  the 
Irish  matter  could  be  settled  altogether  by  representa- 
tives of  Ireland.  After  much  difficulty  a  majority 
of  the  members  agreed  upon  a  report,  but  from  this 
agreement  Protestant  Ulster  dissented  as  violently 
as  she  had  before  about  the  Home  Rule  bills.  Sub- 
stantially, therefore,  the  difficulty  remained  as  before 
the  Convention  assembled.  Whatever  reluctance 
many  Englishmen  feel  to  change  the  existing  Union 
and  give  Ireland  Home  Rule,  the  principal  reason 
why  Home  Rule  is  not  given  now  is  that  part  of  Ire- 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  459 

land,  and  a  very  substantial  and  important  part,  res- 
olutely refuses  to  have  it.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
through  federalism  or  through  the  willingness  of  Na- 
tionalists and  Ulstermen  to  agree  Irishmen  will  get 
that  kind  of  a  government  most  suitable  for  them  and 
most  desired  by  them;  and  most  of  the  British  people 
are  willing  that  this  shall  take  place.  But  the  time 
of  a  death-grapple  with  the  German  Empire  was  not 
a  propitious  moment  to  bring  such  a  settlement  about. 
Finally,  with  respect  to  conscription  in  Ireland,  it 
is  not  easy  to  make  correct  judgment.  Many  Irish- 
men felt  strongly  that  compulsory  service  ought  to  be 
ordained  only  by  themselves  under  their  own  autono- 
mous government,  and  that  therefore  conscription 
should  come  after  Home  Rule.  It  is  easy  to  sym- 
pathize with  this  position,  but  there  is  much  to  be  said 
on  the  other  side.  The  conscription  measure  was  cer- 
tainly legal.  The  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  is  governed  by  a  parliament  in  which  Ireland 
has  generous  representation.  In  this  parliament  con- 
scription was  approved  by  a  majority  of  the  members 
attending.  If  it  be  objected,  as  many  Irishmen  did, 
that  the  essence  of  the  matter  was  that  the  people  of 
Ireland  did  not  consider  the  government  of  the  Union 
a  proper  one,  that  they  had  long  wanted  it  changed, 
and  hence  were  not  justly  obliged  to  obey  it  in  this 
matter,  that  Home  Rule  should  have  been  given  to 
them  before  they  were  asked  to  be  subject  to  com- 
pulsory service,  one  may  observe  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sarily justice  to  insist  at  a  time  of  peril  upon  a  change 


460    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

in  the  existing  form  of  government  as  the  price  of 
compliance  with  something  desired  by  the  majority 
under  the  existing  system.  Irishmen  may  say,  if  they 
like,  that  "England's  difficulty  is  Ireland's  opportun- 
ity," but  this  has  not  within  it  sufficient  nobility  to 
win  great  sympathy  in  a  time  like  that  through  which 
the  English-speaking  world  has  just  passed,  nor  has 
it  the  fineness  and  fairness  which  English  conduct  to- 
wards Ireland  in  the  past  generation  deserved,  nor 
what  the  crisis  of  the  period  required. 

It  might  have  been  well  if  the  people  of  Ireland 
had  remembered  the  case  of  the  suffragettes  of  Great 
Britain.  For  many  years  previous  to  the  war  a  large 
number  of  women  in  Britain  wanted  the  franchise, 
and  for  some  years  just  before  it  a  smaller  number 
of  them  believed  that  withholding  this  privilege  was  a 
burning  injustice,  which  they  might  properly  protest 
by  any  violence  and  resistance.  In  their  disobedience 
and  denunciation  they  seemed  to  go  farther  than  the 
extremest  Irishmen;  but  at  the  beginning  of  the  war 
they  saw  the  two  issues  in  their  proper  proportion,  and 
immediately  laid  aside  their  quarrel,  to  be  resumed, 
if  necessary,  they  said,  when  the  struggle  was  over. 
Suffrage  has  since  been  given  to  many  of  the  women 
of  England.  We  constantly  hear  talk  about  what 
England  ought  to  do  in  order  to  win  the  affection  of 
the  Irish.  I  cannot  but  think  that  generous  conduct 
on  the  part  of  the  Irish  might  better  have  won  things 
from  the  English  than  the  heartless  words  and  sour 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  461 

opposition  which  came  in  the  dark  days  of  the  labor 
of  the  world. 

As  to  the  justice  of  compelling  Irishmen  to  fight  in 
the  war,  one  arrives  at  different  conclusions  according 
to  the  premises  he  begins  with.  Many  people  in  this 
country  were  strongly  opposed  to  conscription,  but 
we  adopted  it  from  the  extreme  necessity  of  the  time. 
There  were  some  so  hostile  to  it  that  they  condemned 
it  wherever  it  was  proposed.  Many  Irishmen,  par- 
ticularly outside  of  Ulster,  held  that  the  war  was  no 
concern  of  theirs,  and,  like  the  French-Canadians, 
maintained  that  since  they  did  not  wish  to  fight  they 
could  not  justly  be  compelled  thereto  by  an  outside 
and  higher  authority.  In  Quebec  there  was  the  bit- 
terest opposition,  but  after  conscription  was  enacted  it 
was  obeyed  and  worked  well.  In  Ireland,  however, 
when  the  general  opposition  was  marshalled  by  the 
priests,  the  British  government  yielded  rather  than 
force  through  the  working  of  the  law,  though  many 
thought  it  might  easily  have  been  put  into  effect  had 
the  authorities  chosen  to  act  sternly.  As  usual  in  the 
recent  relations  of  Britain  and  Ireland,  sternness  was 
put  aside  by  the  government  in  an  effort  to  effect  a 
conciliation. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CONCLUSION 

Clearly  there  is  no  ground  of  settlement  with  Sinn  Fein. 
Its  policy  is  too  extreme.  .  .   . 

The  [London]  Nation,  January  11,  1919. 

We  are  less  children  of  this  clime 
Than  of  some  nation  yet  unborn.   .   .  . 

George  W.  Russell. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1918,  while  destiny  and  fortune 
were  leaving  the  Germans  at  last,  Irish  affairs 
went  steadily  on  to  their  worst.  In  October,  Mr.  Dil- 
lon said  there  was  no  longer  any  alliance  between 
the  Irish  Party  and  the  Liberals  in  Britain,  that  the 
Nationalists  were  as  free  now  as  before  the  union  ef- 
fected by  Parnell,  but  that  they  were  ready  to  join 
with  any  English  party  standing  for  true  liberalism 
and  Irish  freedom.  In  the  early  part  of  the  next 
month,  when  the  collapse  of  the  enemy  was  assured, 
he  moved  a  resolution  in  the  Commons  that  the  Brit- 
ish government  take  no  part  in  the  approaching 
Peace  Conference  until  the  Irish  question  had  been 
settled  in  accord  with  the  self-determination  pro- 
claimed by  President  Wilson.  Mr.  O'Connor  said 
it  would  be  a  real  test  of  Britain's  sincerity,  if  after 
helping  to  liberate  the  Czechs  and  the  Jugo- Slavs, 
she  gave  liberty  to  Ireland;  and  Mr.  Asquith  urged 

462 


CONCLUSION  463 

that,  late  as  it  was,  such  action  be  taken  that  when 
Britain  went  to  the  Conference  Ireland  might  not  be 
a  standing  reproach.  Mr.  Bonar  Law  replied  that 
this  was  a  domestic  issue,  with  which  the  Conference 
could  have  no  right  to  deal,  but  that  Britain  was  ready 
to  act  generously  and  justly,  if  only  a  solution  could 
be  found.  A  few  days  later  the  war  came  to  an  end, 
and  on  the  25th  the  parliament  which  had  lasted  all 
through  the  struggle  was  dissolved. 

In  the  election  campaign  which  now  followed,  the 
Irish  question  was  directly  an  issue.  Mr.  Asquith 
asserted  the  importance  of  putting  Irish  self-govern- 
ment into  operation.  The  Labor  Party  issued  a 
manifesto  in  which  it  declared  among  other  things 
that  Ireland  and  India  ought  to  have  freedom,  and 
that  it  would  apply  the  war-aims  of  the  Allies,  giving 
to  all  its  subject  peoples  self-determination  within 
the  Empire.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  said  that  Home 
Rule  was  essential  for  Ireland.  It  was  a  pity  that 
Irishmen  had  chosen  to  stand  aside  in  the  world  war, 
but  the  whole  matter  must  be  approached  calmly  now. 
There  must  be  no  coercion  of  Ulster,  however,  but 
probably  some  separate  arrangement.  In  the  elec- 
tion manifesto  signed  by  himself  and  Mr.  Bonar  Law 
it  was  said  that  there  could  be  no  political  peace  for 
the  United  Kingdom  while  the  Irish  question  re- 
mained unsettled,  and  that  it  was  one  of  the  first  ob- 
ligations of  British  statesmanship  to  try  to  arrange  it 
on  the  basis  of  self-government;  but  that  two  things 
might  be  regarded  as  settled :  there  was  to  be  no  com- 


464          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

plete  separation  from  Great  Britain,  nor  any  forcible 
subjection  of  the  six  counties  of  Ulster.  Meanwhile 
Sir  Edward  Carson  again  declared  that  Ulstermen 
would  accept  no  Home  Rule,  and  said  it  was  now 
understood  that  the  Coalition  government  would  not 
coerce  them.  He  and  others  urged  that  Ulster  be 
more  closely  bound  to  Great  Britain,  and  be  subject 
to  exactly  the  same  laws.  To  this  the  southern 
Unionists  were  strongly  opposed,  insisting  that  there 
be  the  same  arrangement  for  all  of  the  island. 

The  election  in  December  was  memorable  for  the 
sweeping  victory  of  the  Coalition  in  Britain,  headed 
by  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  supported  by  many  Lib- 
erals, by  most  of  the  Conservatives,  and  the  Irish 
Unionists.  Altogether  the  Coalition  got  478  seats 
out  of  the  total  of  707;  and  in  the  great  rout  of  po- 
litical parties  which  brought  this  about,  leaders  like 
Mr.  Asquith  and  Mr.  Henderson*  all  who  had  failed 
to  support  the  war  to  the  utmost,  and  all  who  now 
savored  of  compromise,  pacificism,  or  social  extreme, 
were  swept  aside.  The  Labor  Party,  which  con- 
tested 370  seats,  won  63,  while  the  Liberals  saved 
from  the  wreckage  of  their  fortunes  but  28.  Small 
as  the  Opposition  could  be,  it  was  rendered  smaller 
still  by  the  fact  that  Sinn  Fein,  which  had  announced 
its  policy  of  not  going  to  the  British  parliament,  had 
just  swept  over  Ireland  with  a  triumph  equally  de- 
cisive. 

As  the  Liberal  Party  was  destroyed  in  England 
for  the  time,  so  was  the  Nationalist  in  Ireland. 


CONCLUSION  465 

There  had  been  a  lively,  even  bitter,  campaign,  with 
disorder  at  election  meetings  and  violent  speeches. 
A  son  of  Michael  Davitt  openly  declared  that  to  vote 
for  Captain  Redmond  would  be  choosing  centuries 
more  of  industrial  and  national  slavery.  Every- 
where the  contest  was  pushed  by  Sinn  Fein,  and  they 
tried  for  100  out  of  the  105  seats  in  the  country. 
And  the  tide  ran  strongly  with  them.  The  Catholic 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  voting  for  the  first  time  in 
his  life,  voted  for  one  of  their  candidates.  When  the 
results  were  announced,  it  was  seen  that  Ulster 
Unionist  strength  was  unimpaired,  and  Sir  Edward's 
followers  had  been  returned  by  enormous  majorities, 
but  that  the  Nationalist  Party  had  now  ceased  to 
exist,  and  outside  the  six  Ulster  counties  and  Dublin 
University  scarcely  an  opponent  of  the  aggressive 
new  party  had  been  elected.  The  Unionists  had  25 
members,  the  Nationalists  7,  and  Sinn  Fein  73. 
South  of  the  Boyne  and  west  of  the  Shannon  Sinn 
Fein  had  swept  all  before  it,  and  its  triumph  had 
gone  to  the  very  gates  of  the  Ulster  stronghold.  The 
work  of  the  Home  Rule  party  had  been  discredited 
and  cast  aside  with  disdain,  and  the  Irish  problem 
was  again  fundamentally  as  before  the  days  of  Butt 
and  Parnell. 

The  success  of  this  radical  Irish  party  had  been  as 
rapid  as  complete.  Less  than  three  years  before  its 
political  strength  was  negligible;  now  it  had  dis- 
placed the  Nationalists,  and  assumed  responsibility 
for  guiding  Ireland  through  the  strange  new  times 


466    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

brought  to  pass.  That  responsibility  was  a  heavy 
one.  Many  of  the  Sinn  Fein  members  just  elected 
were  almost  unknown  outside  of  their  constituencies. 
They  had  promised  that  they  would  try  to  get  the 
Irish  question  solved,  to  bring  Ireland  before  the 
Peace  Conference,  and  make  her  an  independent  re- 
public. It  would  be  far  more  difficult  to  effect  these 
things  than  it  had  been  to  denounce  the  Nationalist 
leaders  for  failing  to  bring  them  about. 

Whether,  if  such  things  were  really  brought  for- 
ward, the  authorities  would  force  the  crisis  by  some 
drastic  action,  or  allow  the  inherent  weakness  of  Sinn 
Fein  to  develop,  was  not  known,  but  it  was  soon  evi- 
dent that  the  government  would  do  much  to  avoid  a 
collision.  The  Sinn  Fein  adherents  styled  themselves 
the  Irish  Republican  Party.  In  January,  many  of 
the  members  just  elected  assembled  in  the  Mansion 
House  in  Dublin,  the  lord  mayor  being  an  ardent 
advocate  of  Sinn  Fein,  and  there  solemnly  calling  the 
roll,  even  the  name  of  Sir  Edward  Carson,  they  acted 
as  a  constituent  assembly  and  proceeded  to  proclaim 
an  Irish  Republic,  reading  their  declaration  in  Irish, 
in  English,  and  in  French.  They  demanded  that 
Ireland  be  confronted  with  England  at  the  Congress 
of  the  Nations,  that  the  people  of  the  world  judging 
between  right  and  wrong  might  guarantee  to  Ireland 
permanent  support  for  the  maintenance  of  her  na- 
tional independence.  For  the  present  the  Deal 
Eirann  or  Irish  parliament  was  to  consist  of  deputies 
elected  by  the  Irish  people  from  the  existing  par- 


CONCLUSION  467 

liamentary  constituencies.  There  was  to  be  a  min- 
istry and  a  president  for  executive  business.  During 
this  month  President  Wilson  was  as  popular  in  Ire- 
land, where  his  help  for  independence  was  expected, 
as  he  was  while  in  Italy  at  this  very  time,  when  it 
was  hoped  he  would  support  pretensions  to  Fiume. 
He  was  invited  to  come  to  Ireland,  and  it  was  said 
the  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin  wished  to  go  to  France  to 
confer  on  him  the  freedom  of  the  city.  Appeal  was 
made  to  American  soldiers  in  Ireland:  "Many  of  you 
are  kinsmen  of  ours.  Did  you  win  this  war  in  order 
to  rivet  Ireland's  chains?" 

All  compromise  was  cast  away  now.  For  the 
present  it  was  to  no  purpose  that  General  Gough, 
Captain  Gwynn  and  others  founded  a  new  party  to 
get  Irish  self-government  within  the  Empire,  or  that 
the  chief  secretarjr  announced  a  liberal  reconstruction 
policy  for  the  island;  most  of  the  Irish  people  had 
been  led  to  expect  immediate  independence  and  would 
have  nothing  less.  In  February,  Prof.  De  Valera, 
who  had  defeated  Mr.  Dillon  in  the  Nationalist  cita- 
del of  East  Mayo,  and  who  while  in  an  English  prison 
had  been  elected  president  of  the  republic,  escaped 
from  confinement,  and  after  hiding  a  while  presently 
appeared  among  his  followers  in  triumph.  Sinn 
Fein  sent  a  representative  to  Paris  to  see  President 
Wilson.  He  could  get  no  interview,  but  he  ad- 
dressed letters  to  the  delegates  asking  that  Ireland  be 
admitted  to  the  Conference  and  also  to  the  League 
of  Nations. 


468    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Actually,  however,  nothing  had  been  accomplished 
but  the  setting  up  of  a  government  which  was  unable 
to  begin  the  work  of  governing  Ireland,  and  which 
was  not  recognized  by  any  other  government  in  the 
world.  To  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders  the  people  of  Ire- 
land had  given  the  task  of  bringing  about  what  they 
had  encouraged  the  people  to  hope  for;  but  no  more 
had  yet  been  attained  than  overthrowing  the  Nation- 
alists previously  in  power  and  arousing  illimitable 
hopes.  So,  the  popular  enthusiasm  which  supported 
Sinn  Fein  might  have  greatly  diminished  as  time 
went  on,  with  the  leaders  doing  no  more  than  make 
threats  and  complaints.  But  that  enthusiasm  was 
sustained  and  increased  by  encouragement  received 
now  from  the  United  States. 

In  February  there  was  held  in  Philadelphia  a  Con- 
vention of  the  Irish  Race  in  America,  attended  by 
many  prominent  men,  which  passed  a  resolution  de- 
claring, as  had  the  Irishmen  who  proclaimed  the  re- 
public in  Dublin,  that  a  state  of  war  existed  between 
Ireland  and  England,  which  the  Peace  Conference 
could  not  ignore,  and  proposing  that  the  Conference 
apply  to  Ireland  the  principle  of  self-determination. 
They  agreed  to  raise  a  large  sum  of  money  to  assist  in 
getting  Irish  independence,  and  shortly  after  a  cam- 
paign was  begun  in  the  press  to  get  attention  and  win 
sympathy  for  the  cause.  Representatives  were  sent 
by  the  Philadelphia  Convention  to  Ireland,  where 
they  were  received  with  wild  ovation,  since  they,  like 
the  Sinn  Fein  leaders  just  before,  seemed  to  promise 


CONCLUSION  469 

that  the  Peace  Conference  would  take  up  Ireland's 
case,  and  that  Irish  independence  would  follow  soon 
after.  Their  activities  were  regarded  by  many  of 
the  British  people  with  considerable  coolness  and 
suspicion.  It  was  believed  that  no  other  government 
than  the  British  would  have  permitted  such  delegates 
to  act  as  these  Americans  did ;  and  it  was  thought  that 
such  tolerance  had  been  a  grievous  mistake,  since 
competent  observers  were  now  declaring  that  the  Irish 
people  were  so  wrought  upon  and  so  greatly  inflamed 
that  only  by  a  miracle  would  it  be  possible  to  avert  a 
rebellion  worse  than  the  one  three  years  before. 

I  hoped  to  accomplish  some  good  by  explaining 
the  parts  of  a  problem.  My  task  has  at  no  time  been 
easy.  I  have  meant  to  be  just  where  often  the  way 
was  not  clear.  It  would  have  been  less  difficult  to 
write  for  one  side  or  the  other,  but  already  there  are 
many  such  books.  In  America  usually  they  tell 
nothing  but  Ireland's  case,  and  it  has  been  mentioned 
to  me  that  my  labor  would  be  vain  unless  this  work 
was  thoroughly  pro-Irish.  I  am  unwilling  to  be- 
lieve it,  but  in  any  event  I  am  content  if  my  account 
be  but  fair  and  true.  I  can  only  say  I  had  rather  the 
book  were  not  written  than  that  anything  in  it  should 
even  remotely  injure  the  cause  of  one  Irish  peasant 
or  a  single  laborer  in  Dublin ;  but  I  have  been  equally 
unwilling  that  England's  difficulties  and  the  good  in 
her  work  and  intention  should  fail  to  be  stated  in  my; 
pages. 


470    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

As  my  work  is  done,  I  speak  of  the  future,  asking 
critics  to  judge  my  prophecies  more  leniently  than  the 
narrative  of  the  history  preceding. 

Sinn  Fein  will  fail.  It  would  never  have  been  so 
prominent  but  for  the  upheaval  of  the  years  of  the 
war.  But  its  work  is  not  wholly  in  vain.  Because 
of  its  very  extremeness  the  moderate  parties  will  be 
more  able  to  compromise  and  settle  the  problem. 

The  war  being  ended,  the  liberalism  of  England 
and  the  greater  spirit  of  liberalism  everywhere  will 
shortly  bring  to  Ireland  the  "freedom"  and  the  "self- 
determination"  for  which  she  is  asking,  in  some  sort 
of  satisfactory  self-government  within  the  Empire — 
just  as  soon  as  Irishmen  agree  among  themselves. 

The  difference  between  Ulster  and  the  rest  of  Ire- 
land will  abate,  and  they  will  esteem  each  other  better 
in  the  future. 

After  self-government  has  been  established,  Ire- 
land will  draw  closer  to  Britain  in  real  fellowship  and 
communion,  and  the  British  Empire  and  all  of  us 
will  be  better  when  this  comes  to  pass. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I  have  attempted  to  make  not  so  much  an  ex- 
haustive bibliography  of  the  subject,  which  I  think 
unnecessary  in  an  account  for  general  reading,  as  a 
list  of  books  known  to  me  or  helpful  in  the  writing  of 
this  work. 

HISTORIES  OF  IRELAND 

Green,  Alice  Stopford  (Mrs.  J.  R.  Green),  Irish  Nation- 
ality, London,  1911.  One  of  the  little  volumes  of  the 
Home  University  Library  series.  It  is  written  with 
vigor  and  much  charm,  but  represents  the  ardor  of  re- 
cent Irish  nationalism  rather  than  critical  handling  of 
materials. 

Joyce,  Patrick  Weston,  A  Concise  History  of  Ireland  from 
the  Earliest  Times  to  1908,  20th  ed.,  Dublin,  1914. 
A  very  useful  little  work.  The  earlier  portion,  to 
1608,  is  an  abridgment  of  the  author's  larger  book. 

Joyce,  P.  W.,  A  Short  History  of  Ireland  from  the  Earliest 
Times  to  1608,  3d  ed.,  London,  1904.  The  careful 
work  of  an  authority,  and  one  of  the  best  general  his- 
tories of  Ireland. 

Morris,  William  O'Connor,  Ireland,  14.94.-1905,  Cambridge, 
1909.  One  of  the  volumes  of  the  Cambridge  Historical 
Series.  Revised  by  Robert  Dunlop,  who  added  notes 
and  the  last  chapter,  on  the  period  1868—1905. 

Some  of  the  best  contemporary  accounts,  like  the  books 
of  Edmund  Spenser,  Sir  John  Davies,  Sir  William  Petty, 

and  Bishop  Berkeley,  have  boon  brought  together  in 

471 


472    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

A  Collection  of  Tracts  and  Treatises  Illustrative  of  the  Nat- 
ural History,  Antiquities  and  the  Political  and  Social 
State  of  Ireland,  etc.,  2  vols.,  Dublin,  1860. 

A  great  deal  about  the  history  of  Ireland  is  scattered 
through  the  records  of  the  British  parliament,  and  it  need 
not  be  said  that  there  is  usually  much  information  to  be  got 
from  the  general  histories  of  England,  especially  in  any  of 
the  editions  of 

Lecky,  William  Edward  Hartpole,  A  History  of  England  in 
the  Eighteenth  Century,  8  vols.  The  seventh  and 
eighth  volumes  are  altogether  concerned  with  Ireland. 

ABOUT  PARTICULAR  PERIODS  OR  SUBJECTS 
IN  IRISH  HISTORY 

Bagwell,  Richard,  Ireland  under  the  Tudors,  etc.,  3  vols., 
London,  1885. 

Bagwell,  R.,  Ireland  under  the  Stuarts  and  during  the  In- 
terregnum, etc.,  2  vols.,  London,  1909. 

Barker,  Ernest,  Ireland  in  the  Last  Fifty  Years  (1866- 
1916),  Oxford,  1917.  An  excellent  little  summary 
which  I  have  found  very  helpful. 

Clerigh,  Arthur  Ua,  The  History  of  Ireland  to  the  Coming 
of  Henry  II.,  London,  1908.  A  work  of  much  research 
upon  difficult  problems  of  the  period. 

Davis,  Thomas,  The  Patriot  Parliament  of  1689,  etc.,  Lon- 
don, 1893.  Edited  with  notes  and  introduction  by  Sir 
C.  G.  Duffy.  This  is  one  of  the  volumes  of  the  New 
Irish  Library.  It  expresses  an  Irish  point  of  view 
which  Mrs.  Green's  work  has  made  better  known  to 
English  readers. 

Duffy,  Sir  Charles  Gavan,  Young  Ireland:  a  Fragment  of 
Irish  History,  1840-1850,  London,  1880. 

Dunlop,  Robert,  Ireland  under  the  Commonwealth,  2  vols., 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  473 

Manchester,  1913.  A  selection  of  documents  relating 
to  the  government  of  Ireland  1651—1659. 

Dunraven,  The  Earl  of,  The  Outlook  in  Ireland:  the  Case 
for  Devolution  and  Conciliation,  Dublin,  1907. 

Froude,  James  Anthony,  The  English  in  Ireland  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century,  3  vols.,  London,  1874.  It  was 
assailed  by  Lecky,  who  cited  numerous  errors. 

Grattan,  Henry,  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  the  Rt. 
Hon.  Henry  Grattan,  5  vols.,  London,  1839—1846. 
This  work  was  done  by  the  son  of  the  Irish  leader. 

Green,  Alice  S.,  The  Making  of  Ireland  and  Its  Undoing, 
1200-1600,  London,  1909.  A  series  of  chapters  on 
the  social  and  economic  life  of  the  Irish  people. 

Green,  Alice  S.,  The  Old  Irish  World,  Dublin,  1912. 

Joyce,  P.  W.,  A  Social  History  of  Ancient  Ireland,  2  vols., 
2d  ed.,  Dublin,  1913.  This  excellent  work,  which  is 
amply  illustrated,  contains  studies  about  the  govern- 
ment, the  military  system,  the  law,  religion,  learning, 
art,  customs,  and  industries  of  the  Irish  people  in  olden 
times. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,  2 
vols.  I  have  used  the  edition  New  York,  1903. 

Mitchel,  John,  Jatt  Journal,  etc.,  Dublin,  1913.  This 
classic  denunciation  of  England,  first  published  in  1854, 
was  written  by  a  leader  of  the  Young  Ireland  move- 
ment, condemned  to  penal  servitude,  and,  after  his  es- 
cape, long  a  refugee  in  the  United  States. 

Mitchel,  J.,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Aodh  O'Neill,  Prince  of 
Ulster,  etc.,  New  York,  1868.  A  volume  of  the  New 
Irish  Library. 

Murray,  Alice  Effie,  A  History  of  the  Commercial  and 
Financial  Relations  between  England  and  Ireland, 
from  the  Period  of  the  Restoration,  London,  1903.  An 
admirable  monograph. 

Murray,  Rev.   Robert  H.,  Revolutionary  Ireland  and  Its 


474    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Settlement,  London,  1911.  A  scholarly  and  exhaustive 
work,  with  an  introduction  by  the  late  Professor  Ma- 
haffy. 

O'Brien,  Richard  Barry,  The  Life  of  Charles  Stewart  Par- 
nell,  2  vols.,  New  York,  1898. 

[O'Brien,  R.  B.,  editor],  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History, 
1691-1870,  2d  ed.,  London,  1907.  In  this  work  an  in- 
troduction by  Lord  Bryce  precedes  a  series  of  studies 
by  specialists  in  Irish  history.  I  have  relied  much  upon 
their  writing. 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  Correspondence  of,  2  vols.,  New  York, 
1888.  Edited  with  notices  of  his  life  and  times  by  W. 
J.  Fitzpatrick. 

[O'Connell,  John,  editor],  The  Life  and  Speeches  of  Daniel 
O'Connell,  M.  P.,  2  vols.,  Dublin,  1846.  Edited  by  the 
son  of  the  great  "Liberator." 

O'Curry,  Eugene,  On  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  An- 
cient Irish,  a  Series  of  Lectures,  3  vols.,  London,  1873. 
Edited  with  notes,  appendices,  etc.,  by  W.  K.  Sullivan. 
The  author  was  Professor  of  Irish  History  and  Archae- 
ology in  the  Catholic  University  of  Ireland. 

O'Donnell,  F.  Hugh,  A  History  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary 
Party,  2  vols.,  London,  1910.  A  critical  treatment  by 
one  who  was  an  advocate  of  Home  Rule. 

Orpen,  Goddard  Henry,  Ireland  under  the  Normans,  1169— 
1216,  2  vols.,  Oxford,  1911.  An  example  of  the  best  re- 
cent work. 

Parnell,  John  Howard,  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  a  Memoir, 
New  York,  1914.  A  biography  of  the  Home  Rule 
leader  by  his  brother. 

Prendergast,  John  P.,  The  Cromwellian  Settlement  of  Ire- 
land,  2d  ed.,  London,  1870. 

Redmond,  John,  Home  Rule,  Speeches  of,  etc.,  London,  1910. 
Edited  with  an  introduction  by  R.  H.  O'Brien. 

Redmond-Howard,   Louis    G.,   John   Redmond  ...   a   Bio- 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  475 

graphical   Study   in   Irish   Politics,   New   York,   1911. 
By  the  nephew  of  the  Irish  leader. 

Taylor,  J.  F.,  Owen  Roe  O'Neill,  London,  1904.     One  of 
the  volumes  of  the  New  Irish  Library. 

In  the  works  of  two  of  the  great  classical  Anglo-Irish 
authors  especially  are  to  be  found  writings  of  much  interest 
about  Ireland. 

Burke,  Edmund,  Works,  12  vols.,  London,  1815 : 
in  volume  vi: 

A   Letter   to   a   Peer   of  Ireland,   on   the  Penal   Laws 

against  Irish  Catholicks,  etc.,  1782. 
A  Letter  to  Sir  H.  Langrishe,  Bart.  M.P.,  on  the  Sub- 
ject of  the  Roman  Catholicks  of  Ireland,   and  the 
Propriety  of  Admitting  Them  to  the  Elective  Fran- 
chise, etc.,  1792. 
in  volume  ix : 

Several  letters  on  Irish  subjects  and  Tracts  Relative  to 
the  Laws   against   Popery   in  Ireland,    also   several 
letters  on  that  subject. 
Swift,  Jonathan,  Works,  edited  by  Temple  Scott,  12  vols., 

London,  1901 : 
in  volume  vi : 

The  Drapier's  Letters. 
in  volume  vii : 

Historical   and   Political   Tracts    relating   to    Ireland, 

containing  among  many  others, 
The  Present  Miserable  State  of  Ireland.  , 

A  Modest  Proposal  for  Preventing  the  Children  of  Poor 
People  from  Being  a  Burthen  to  Their  Parents  or  the 
Country,  etc. 

There  are  several  works  of  travellers  or  investigators,  do- 
ing in  a  more  extensive  and  modern  way  what  Davies  and 
Petty  did  long  ago. 


476    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

Hackett,  Francis,  Ireland:  a  Study  in  Nationalism,  New 
York,  1918.  A  most  interesting  account  of  contem- 
porary and  recent  conditions  by  a  moderate  Sinn 
Feiner,  who  was  born  in  Ireland,  but  does  most  of  his 
work  in  the  United  States. 

Ireland  of  To-Day,  Reprinted,  with  Some  Additions,  from 
the  [London]  Times,  London,  1913. 

Paul-Dubois,  Louis,  L'Irlande  Contemporaine  et  la  Question 
Irlandaise,  Paris,  1907.  The  best  work  of  its  kind 
about  Ireland. 

Perraud,  Adolphe,  Etudes  sur  L'Irlande  Contemporaine,  2 
vols.,  Paris,  186i2.  Another  excellent  description  by  a 
foreign  observer,  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Young,  Arthur,  A  Tour  in  Ireland,  London,  1780.  One  of 
the  well-known  accounts  by  this  famous  traveller  and 
observer,  1776-1779. 

HOME  RULE 

In  studying  the  recent  Irish  issues,  and  especially  Home 
Rule,  I  have  collected  abroad  a  large  number  of  small  pam- 
phlets, leaflets,  and  papers,  which  readers  generally  cannot 
obtain  now,  and  which  it  would  therefore  be  useless  to  list 
here.  Of  longer  works : 

[Buxton,  Charles  Roden,  editor],  The  ABC  Home  Rule 
Handbook,    London,    1912.     Published    by    the    Home 
Rule  Council,  it  contains  matter  in  support  of  Home 
Rule  which  is  very  interesting  and  informing. 
Cambray,  Philip  G.,  Irish  Affairs  and  the  Home  Rule  Ques- 
tion, etc.,  2d  ed.,  London,  1911.     From  the  British  and 
Unionist  point  of  view.     Introduction  by  the  Marquis 
of  Londonderry. 
Hobson,  S.  G.,  Irish  Home  Rule,  1912.     Strongly  advocates 

Home  Rule. 
Kerr-Smiley,  P.,  The  Peril  of  Home  Rule,  London,   1911. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  477 

By  a  Unionist  member  of  parliament,  for  Ulster ;  with 

an  introduction  by  Sir  Edward  Carson. 
[Rosenbaum,  S.,  editor],  Against  Home  Ride:  the  Case  for 

the  Union,  London,  1912.     A  series  of  excellent  papers 

by  leading  Unionist  statesmen,  with  an  introduction  by 

Sir  Edward  Carson  and  a  preface  by  Mr.  A.  Bonar 

Law. 
Samuels,  Arthur  Warren,  Home  Rule  Finance,  Dublin,  1912. 

By  an  opponent.     Foreword  by  Sir  Edward  Carson. 

For  the  recent  Irish  Convention: 

The  Irish  Home-Rule  Convention:  "Thoughts  for  a  Conven- 
tion," by  George  W.  Russell;  "A  Defence  of  the  Con- 
vention," by  the  Rt.  Hon.  Sir  Horace  Plunketi;  "An 
American  Opinion,"  by  John  Quinn,  New  York,  1917. 

ULSTER  UNIONISM 

Leech,  H.  Brougham,  1848  and  1912,  the  Continuity  of  the 
Irish  Revolutionary  Movement,  2d  ed.,  London,  1912. 
A  Unionist  exposition  of  the  tendency  towards  sep- 
aration. 

Ervine,  St.  John  G.,  Sir  Edward  Carson  and  the  Ulster 
Movement,  New  York,  1916.  A  hostile  and  critical 
estimate  of  the  Unionist  leader  by  a  brilliant  contem- 
porary Irish  writer. 

Hamilton,  Ernest  W.,  The  Soul  of  Ulster,  New  York,  1917. 
A  Unionist  exposition. 

SINN  FEIN 

O'Hegarty,  P.  S.,  Sinn  Fein:  an  Illumination,  Dublin,  1918. 
By  an  ardent  advocate. 

Skinnider,  Margaret,  Doing  My  Bit  for  Ireland,  New  York, 
1917.  Largely  a  narrative  of  the  Easter  Rebellion, 
but  admirably  revealing  the  spirit  of  Sinn  Fein. 


478    IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

THE  REBELLION  OF  1916 

Boyle,  John  F.,  The  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916:  a  Brief  History 
of  the  Revolt  and  Its  Suppression,  London,  1916.  An 
attempt  at  an  impartial  account. 

[Joy,  Maurice,  editor],  The  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916  and  Its 
Martyrs:  Erin's  Tragic  Easter,  New  York,  1916. 
Contains  chapters  written  by  some  of  the  best  known 
adherents  of  Sinn  Fein;  fairly  restrained,  and  affords 
a  great  deal  of  information  about  Gaelic  nationalism  as 
well  as  the  rebellion. 

Norway,  Mrs.  Hamilton,  The  Sinn  Fein  Rebellion  As  I  Saw 
It,  London,  1916.  By  the  wife  of  the  Secretary  for  the 
Post  Office  in  Ireland. 

Redmond-Howard,  L.  G.,  Six  Days  of  the  Irish  Republic, 
Boston,  1916.  A  critical  account  from  the  Nationalist 
point  of  view. 

Stephens,  James,  The  Insurrection  in  Dublin,  New  York, 
1916.  A  record  by  one  who  desired  the  welfare  of  Ire- 
land, but  also  friendly  relations  between  Ireland  and 
England. 

IRELAND  AND  GERMANY 

These  two  titles  I  cite  merely  as  interesting  examples  of 

writing  which  had  some  circulation  in  America  during  the 

war. 

McGuire,  James  K.,  The  King,  the  Kaiser,  and  Irish  Free- 
dom, New  York,  1915. 

McGuire,  J.  K.,  What  Could  Germany  Do  for  Ireland?  New 
York,  1916.  With  an  introduction  by  Dr.  Thomas 
Addis  Emmet. 

THE  IRISH  QUESTION  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Leslie,  Shane,  The  Irish  Issue  in  Its  American  Aspect,  New 
York,  1917.  A  brilliant  discussion  by  a  moderate  Sinn 
Feiner. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  479 

THE  LITERATURE  OF  IRELAND 

Hull,  Eleanor,  A  Text  Book  of  Irish  Literature,  2  parts,  2d 
ed.,  Dublin,  1910.  This  work,  which  treats  of  the 
Celtic  literature  of  Ireland  from  the  earliest  times  to 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  has  the  guise 
of  an  elementary  treatise,  but  it  is  the  work  of  a  com- 
petent authority,  the  secretary  of  the  Irish  Texts  So- 
ciety, and  is  the  best  general  account  in  English. 

Much  critical  work  in  the  study  of  the  Celtic  literature 
of  Ireland  has  been  done  by  English  and,  especially,  by  Ger- 
man scholars.  But  it  is  mostly  special  and  monographic, 
and  has  no  place  in  a  list  of  this  kind.  The  work  of  Dr. 
Hyde  is  more  important  for  its  purpose  and  effect  than  its 
scholarly  value.  The  best  large  general  treatise  continues 
to  be 

de  Jubainville,  Henri  D'Arbois,  Cours  de  Litterature  Cel- 
tique,  12  vols.,  Paris,  1883-1902. 

For  the  cursory  reader  there  is  interesting  information  in 
such  volumes  as 
Boyd,  Ernest  A.,  Appreciations  and  Depreciations,  Dublin, 

1917.  Essays  on  George   Bernard  Shaw,  George  W. 
Russell,  and  others. 

Boyd,  E.  A.,  The  Contemporary  Drama  of  Ireland,  Dublin, 

1918.  An  excellent  account. 

Eglinton,  John  [William  K.  Magee],  Anglo-Irish  Essays, 
Dublin,  1917.  Several  papers  on  subjects  in  Irish 
literature. 

Graves,  Alfred  Perceval,  Irish  Literary  and  Musical  Studies, 
London,  1913.  Containing  among  other  interesting 
papers  an  essay  on  Sir  Samuel  Ferguson. 

Weygandt,  Cornelius,  Irish  Plays  and  Playwrights,  London, 
1913.  A  very  useful  account  of  the  Irish  theater  and 


480          IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 

the  principal   dramatic   writers   of   the  Irish  Literary 
Revival. 

Among  the  masterpieces   of  Irish  literature  which  have 

been   translated  or  in  some  fashion   rendered  into  English 

may  be  mentioned 

The  Ancient  Irish  Epic  Tale,  Tain  Bo  Cualnge,  "The 
Cualnge  Cattle-Raid"  now  for  the  first  time  done  en- 
tire into  English  out  of  the  Irish  of  the  Book  of 
Leinster  and  Allied  Manuscripts  by  Joseph  Dunn,  Lon- 
don, 1914. 

Ferguson,  Sir  Samuel,  Lays  of  the  Red  Branch,  London, 
1897.  Poetical  renderings  from  the  Ulster  Cycle. 

Gregory,  Lady  [Augusta],  Cuchulain  of  Muirthemne:  the 
Story  of  the  Men  of  the  Red  Branch  of  Ulster  Ar- 
ranged and  Put  into  English  by,  London,  1902.  Pre- 
face by  W.  B.  Yeats. 

Hull,  Eleanor,  Cuchulain  the  Hound  of  Ulster,  London, 
1909. 

Irish  Texts  Society  Publications,  London,  1899-.  Texts 
republished  with  translation  facing  on  opposite  page. 
Containing  among  others  the  History  of  Keating. 


INDEX 


Abbey  Street,  380 

Abbey  Theater,  339 

Absenteeism,  of  landlords,  83,  84 

Act  of  Uniformity,  operates 
against  dissenters  in  Ireland,  88 

Act  of  Union,  England  and  Scot- 
land (1T07),  107;  good  results 
of,  108;  motion  to  annul,  113 

Act  of  Union,  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  (1800),  character  of 
writing  about,  106;  terms  of,  112 

Addison,  Joseph,  321 

Adrian  IV,  Pope,  33,  34 

Aenachs,  or  Fairs,  14 

Agrarian  Conditions,  in  Ireland,  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  82,  83; 
at  beginning  of  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 115 

Agrarian  Crimes,  197;  diminution 
of,  204 

Agrarian  Disorders,  partial  revival 
of,  210;  after  the  defeat  of 
Home  Rule  (1886),  251 

Agrarian  Outrages,  predicted,  277, 
278 

Agriculture,  Irish,  decline  of  after 
Napoleonic  wars,  118;  condition 
of  before  the  Great  Famine,  134; 
injured  by  repeal  of  the  Corn 
Laws,  142;  development  of,  193; 
co-operation  in,  218-222;  gov- 
ernment supervision  of,  221 

Aidan,  23 

Aided  Chloinne   Uisnig,  326 

A ilill,  324 

Alban,  or  Scotland,  colonized  by 
Gaels  from  Ireland,  23 

Alcuin,  21 

Alexander  II,  Pope,  33 

Alexander  III,  Pope,  34 

Alsace-Lorraine,  58. 


Amending  Bill,  to  the  Home  Rule 
Bill,  396,  397 

Americans,  attitude  of,  toward  the 
French  during  the  Great  War, 
439,  440;  toward  the  English, 
439,  440;  causes  of  misunder- 
standing between  and  the  Brit- 
ish, 439  ff. ;  understanding  be- 
tween desirable,  442 

Amiens,  429 

Anchorites,  20 

Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  275, 
277,  306 

Angevin  Empire,  32 

Anglo-Normans,  Sir  John  Davies 
on  the  conquest  of  Ireland  by, 
32;  decline  of  their  power  in 
Ireland,  44;  fail  to  conquer  Ire- 
land completely,  50;  results  of 
their  efforts  in  Ireland,  51 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  328,  329 

Animism,  15 

Annals,  329-331 

Annals  of  Clonmacnoise,  330 

Annals  of  Connacht,  330 

Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  330, 
331 

Annals  of  Innisfallen,  330 

Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  330 

Annals  of  Tigernach,  330 

Annals  of  Ulster,  330 

Anthropomorphism,  16 

Antwerp,  381 

Ard-ri,  or  Over-king,  9 

Armagh,  22;  cathedral  of,  326 

Arras,  429 

Art,  in  pagan  Ireland,  24;  in 
early  Christian  Ireland,  24 

Ashbourne  Act,  206 

Asquith,  Herbert  Henry,  on  the 
continued  demand,  for 


481 


482 


INDEX 


Rule,  242;  becomes  prime  minis- 
ter, 255;  proposes  temporary 
exclusion  of  the  Unionist  coun- 
ties of  Ulster  from  Home  Rule, 
262,  308;  on  constitutional 
changes,  272;  on  punishment  of 
the  Irish  rebels,  384;  causes  the 
Home  Rule  Bill  to  be  passed, 
398;  in  Dublin,  398;  on  the  situ- 
ation in  Ireland,  399,  400,  423; 
proposes  to  bring  Home  Rule 
into  effect,  401 ;  fall  of  the  coali- 
tion cabinet  of,  403;  opposed  to 
conscription,  421 ;  on  conscrip- 
tion in  Ireland,  431 ;  on  action 
as  to  Ireland,  462;  in  the  elec- 
tion of  1918,  463,  464 

Assemblies,  Public,  in  old  Ireland, 
14 

Australia,  176;  support  for  Irish 
Home  Rule  in,  290 

Austria,  power  of  priests  in,  281 


Baden,  281 

Bannockburn,  42 

Banshee,  17 

Bards,  329 

Barker,  Ernest,  on  the  British 
Empire,  159;  on  Sinn  Fein,  368 

Bastille,  173 

Bavaria,  281 

Bede,  History  of,  21 

Belfast,  employment  of  Catholics 
in,  281 

Belfast  News  Letter,  on  the  indus- 
tries of  Ireland,  304,  305 

Belgium,  diminished  power  of 
priests  in,  281 

Beresford,  Admiral  Lord  Charles, 
on  the  geographical  position  of 
Ireland,  66 

Berkeley,  George,  321 

Bernhardi,  Friedrich  von,  opinion 
concerning  Ireland,  67;  on  Ire- 
land, 372 

Bible,  Luther's  translation  of,  345; 


King  James  translation  of,  345; 
in  Ireland,  345,  346 

Birrell,  Augustine,  Chief  Secretary 
for  Ireland,  on  the  Irish  Rebel- 
lion, 381,  382;  position  of  before 
the  Rebellion,  390 

Birrell  Act,  209 

Bismarck,  Otto  Eduard  Leopold, 
Prince  von,  social  reforms  made 
by,  190;  on  the  English  lan- 
guage in  North  America,  320 

Blackmail,  59 

Blease,  W.  L.,  on  the  Church  of 
Ireland,  181 

Boers,  self-government  granted  to, 
290;  treatment  of  by  Great 
Britain,  457;  in  the  Great  War, 
457,  458 

Boer  War,  Irish  rejoice  at  British 
defeats  in,  283,  289;  services  of 
Irish  soldiers  in,  289 

Bolsheviki,  426 

Bombardment  of  Part  of  Dublin 
in  the  Irish  Rebellion,  379,  380 

Bonn,  Dr.,  on  the  effects  of  land 
legislation  in  Ireland,  214 

Book  of  Armagh,  323,  324 

Book  of  Ballymote,  323 

Book  of  the  Dun  Cow,  323 

Book  of  Kells,  24 

Book  of  Leinster,  323 

Book  of  Lismore,  323 

Bopp,  Franz,  317 

Border  country,  between  England 
and  Scotland,  warfare  in,  107 

Boru,  Brian,  saves  Ireland  from 
the  Danes,  28,  29;  consolidates 
Ireland,  29;  death  of,  29;  great- 
ness of  celebrated,  329 

Bosnia,  451 

Boulter,  Archbishop  Hugh,  admin- 
isters Ireland,  89,  90;  policy  of, 
90 

Bowen-Colthurst,  Captain,  385 

Boycott,  intimidation  by  predicted, 
277 

Boyne,  Battle  of,  80,  295 


INDEX 


483 


Brehons,  or  Hereditary  Lawyers, 
12 

Brehon  Law,  on  hostages,  10;  con- 
tent of,  12;  value  of,  332,  333 

Brest-Litovsk,  427 

Breton,  344 

Bridgit,  goddess  of  wisdom,  16 

Bright,  John,  urges  repeal  of  Corn 
Laws,  142;  opposes  Home  Rule, 
250;  on  Irish  desire  for  separa- 
tion from  Great  Britain,  284 

British,  defeat  of,  429 ;  why  unwill- 
ing to  allow  separation  of  Ire- 
land from  Great  Britain,  449, 
450 

British  Army,  calumnies  about, 
283 

British  Empire,  character  and  de- 
velopment of,  159  ff.;  slanderous 
propaganda  against,  160;  Irish 
writers  on,  160;  German  writers 
on,  160,  161 ;  opinion  of  Treit- 
schke  concerning,  161;  of  zu 
Reventlow  concerning,  161,  162; 
causes  of  growth  and  success  of, 
169,  170;  in  recent  times  Home 
Rule  the  foundation  of,  266;  ef- 
fort of  in  the  Great  War,  419, 
420,  428 

British  Government,  lenient  policy 
of  with  respect  to  Sinn  Fein, 
373,  374 

British  Isles,  history  of  the  union 
of,  107  ff. 

Bruce,  Edward,  invades  Ireland, 
42;  death  of,  43 

Bruce,  Robert,  42 

Buckingham  Palace,  conference  at, 
264,  397 

Burke,  Edmund,  on  England's  title 
to  Ireland,  34;  on  the  condition 
of  the  subject  in  Ireland,  95;  on 
the  connection  of  Ireland  with 
Great  Britain,  226;  place  of  in 
Anglo-Irish  literature,  321 

Butt,  Isaac,  first  leader  of  the 
Home  Rule  movement,  244; 


views  of,  244;  character  of,  245; 
results  of  the  work  of,  245 
Byron,  George  Noel  Gordon,  Lord, 
on  the  evil  of  the  Union,  106 

Cahiers  of  1789,  168 

Canada,  treatment  of  after  rebel- 
lion, 176;  support  for  Irish 
Home  Rule  in,  290 

Canadians,  failure  of  to  separate 
from  England,  236 

Carson,  Sir  Edward,  character  of, 
258 ;  declaration  of,  261 ;  on  the 
determination  of  the  Ulster 
Unionists,  293;  on  the  Irish  Re- 
bellion, 378,  382;  enters  the  Cab- 
inet, 399;  on  conscription  in 
Ireland,  422,  429,  432;  said  to 
approve  of  federalism,  453;  in 
the  election  of  1918,  464,  465 

Casement,  Sir  Roger,  364,  365; 
captured  by  the  British,  374; 
execution  of,  394,  400 

Cashel,  Synod  of,  37 

Castilian,  344 

Castle  Rule,  unrepresentative  char- 
acter of,  231 ;  a  cause  of  the 
Irish  Rebellion,  393 

Catalan,  344 

"Cathleen  ni  Houlihan,"  338 

Catholic  Association,  founded,  121; 
revived  by  O'Connell,  121;  or- 
ganization of,  123;  suppressed, 
123 

Catholic  Committee,  121 

Catholic  Emancipation,  partly  ac- 
complished in  1793,  99,  101; 
completion  of  desired,  114;  fa- 
vored by  Pitt,  114;  opposed  by 
George  III,  114;  struggle  for, 
120  ff.;  favored  by  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  125,  126;  granted, 
126 

Catholic  Emancipation  Act,  terms 
of,  126;  how  granted,  127 

Catholic  Prelates,  banished  from 
Ireland,  85 


484 


INDEX 


Catholics,  Roman,  in  England,  con- 
dition of,  164 

Catholics,  Roman,  in  Ireland,  dis- 
crimination against,  85-87;  de- 
sire complete  emancipation,  101; 
objections  to  granting  it  to,  101; 
attempts  to  convert  to  Protes- 
tantism, 150;  power  of  under 
Home  Rule  dreaded,  279,  280; 
opinions  of  Liberals  about,  280; 
feared  by  Protestants  in  Ireland, 
298,  302,  303;  alleged  intolerance 
of,  299;  control  of  education  by, 
300;  causes  of  fear  of  in  Ireland 
and  in  Ulster,  303,  304 

Cattle,  Irish,  excluded  from  the 
English  market,  92 

Cavour,  Camillo  Beuso,  Count  di, 
395 

Celestial  Fire,  worship  of,  15 

Celtic  Crosses,  24 

Celtic  Languages,  317 

Celtic  Literary  Remains  of  Ire- 
land, 5 

Celtic  People,  Goidelic  branch  of 
in  Ireland,  4;  Brythonic  branch 
of  in  Britain,  4 

"Celtic  Revival,"  335  ff. 

Chamberlain,  Joseph,  opposes 
Home  Rule,  250;  suggests  fed- 
eralism, 262,  453 

Channel  Islands,  290 

Character  of  the  Irish  People,  ap- 
parently changed  by  the  Great 
Famine,  140 

Chariots,  325 

Charles  I,  Ireland  in  the  time  of, 
295 

Charles  II,  unable  to  restore  prop- 
erty to  his  Irish  supporters,  79 

Chemin  des  Dames,  436 

Chester  Castle,  152 

Chesterfield,  Philip  Dormer  Stan- 
hope, Earl  of,  on  the  condition 
of  Irish  peasants,  83 

Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  power 
and  functions  of,  229-232 


Christianity,  introduced  into  Ire- 
land, 18;  work  of  St.  PaMck  in, 
18,  19;  differs  somewhat  from 
Roman  Christianity,  20 

Church,  Irish,  tribal  organization 
of,  20 

Church  of  Ireland,  disestablish- 
ment of,  181  ff.;  origin  of  estab- 
lishment of,  182;  position  of,  183 

Churchill,  Lord  Randolph,  249 

Churchill,  Winston,  262 

Civil  War,  in  Ireland,  prospect  of, 
264;  probably  expected  by  Ger- 
many, 265 

Civil  War,  American,  Irish-Ameri- 
cans in,  444 

Clan-na-Gael,  356 

Clare,  Earl  of,  see  Fitzgibbon, 
John 

Clarence,  Lionel,  Duke  of,  lord 
lieutenant  of  Ireland,  46;  causes 
Statute  of  Kilkenny  to  be  passed, 
47 

Classes  of  People  in  old  Ireland, 
10 

Clearances,  128,  130 

Clergy,  Irish,  oppose  conscription, 
431,  434 

Clergy,  Regular,  banished  from 
Ireland,  85 

Clerkenwell  Prison,  153 

Clontarf,  battle  of,  29;  meeting 
proposed  to  be  held  at,  132;  ac- 
count of  battle  of,  331 

Cloyne,  Bishop  of,  434 

Coalition,  triumph  of  in  the  elec- 
tion of  1918,  464 

Cobden,  Richard,  142" 

Coercion  Acts,  197 

Coffin-ships,  140 

Cogad  Gaedel  re  Oallaib,  331 

Colonial  Self-government,  and  Ire- 
land, 285,  286,  290 

"Colonial"  Home  Rule,  410 

Colonists,  English  and  Scottish,  in 
Ireland,  high  position  of,  88; 
kept  gubqrd.in.ate,  by.  Englaiid, 


INDEX 


485 


89;  before  the  sixteenth  century 
generally  adopt  the  Gaelic 
tongue,  316 

Colum,  Padraic,  on  Irish  national- 
ity, 315 

Commerce,  early  Irish,  4;  later 
Irish,  rum  of,  93 

Compensation,  for  Injuries,  in 
tribal  Ireland,  13;  Edmund 
Spencer  on,  13;  in  England,  14 

Conchobar,  324 

Congested  Districts,  211 

Connaught,  proposal  to  extend 
plantation  system  to,  74,  76; 
poverty  in,  211;  in  the  Tain  B6 
Cuailnge,  324,  325 

Connolly,  James,  393 

Conor,  326 

Conquest  of  Ireland,  completed, 
69  if. 

Conscription,  announcement  of  for 
Ireland,  414;  attitude  of  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples  towards, 
420;  necessity  for  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, 421;  bill  for  passed,  421;  in 
Ireland,  demanded  by  British 
people,  428;  extension  of  to  Ire- 
land proposed,  430;  measure 
passed,  431 ;  resistance  to  in  Ire- 
land, 434;  Great  Britain  pre- 
pares to  enforce,  435;  not  en- 
forced in  Ireland,  437,  461; 
results  of  the  affair  of,  437; 
reflections  on,  459-461 

Conservatives,  take  up  Irish  Ques- 
tion after  the  Liberals,  202  ff. 

Conspiracy,  Sinn  Fein,  alleged, 
436 

Convention,  Irish,  proposed  by  Mr. 
Lloyd  George,  405;  plan  of,  406; 
how  received,  406;  first  sessions 
of,  407;  difficulties  confronting, 
411,  412;  proposals  of,  412-414; 
results  of,  414,  435 

Convention  of  the  Irish  Race  in 
America,  468 

Co-operation,  in  Ireland,  218-222 


Corn,  fall  in  the  price  of,  130 

Corn  Laws,  135;  repeal  of,  135, 
136;  effects  of  the  repeal  of  in 
England  and  in  Ireland,  142 

Cornwall,  319 

Corruption,  Parliamentary,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  91 

Council  of  Agriculture,  221 

"Countess  Cathleen,  The,"  338 

Covenant,  pledged  in  Ulster,  260, 
264 

Covenanters,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  War,  349 

Crime  in  Ireland,  197 

Crimea,  395 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  in  England  and 
in  Ireland,  77;  at  Drogheda,  77; 
subdues  eastern  part  of  Ireland, 
77;  in  Ireland,  295 

Cromwellian  Settlement,  78 

Cuchulain,  325,  326 

"Cuchulain  of  Muirthemne,"  338 

Culture,  of  Old  Ireland,  arrested 
and  ruined,  26;  revival  of  in 
Danish  period,  30;  decadence  of, 
31 

Curzon  of  Kedleston,  George  Na- 
thaniel, Earl,  Lord,  415 

Customs,  410,  413 

Czechs,  462 


Dail  Eirann,  466 

Danes,  ravage  western  Europe,  27; 
invade  Ireland,  27;  in  Dublin, 
27;  settle  down  among  the  Irish, 
30;  adopt  the  Gaelic  tongue,  316 

Dardanelles,  370 

Davies,  Sir  John,  on  the  Anglo- 
Norman  conquest  of  Ireland,  32; 
on  efforts  to  prevent  fusion  of 
the  races  in  Ireland,  48;  on  Eng- 
lish law  not  being  extended  to 
the  Irish,  52,  53 

Davis,  Jefferson,  236 

Davis,  Thomas,  132 

Davitt,  Michael,  200 


486 


INDEX 


Debt,  Irish,  after  the  Union,  118; 
increases,  118,  119 

Decadents,  French,  336 

Declaration  of  Independence,  443 

Defence  of  the  Realm  Act,  403 

Deirdre,  326 

"Deirdre,"  by  Yeats,  338 

"Deirdre  of  the  Sorrows,"  339 

Democracy,  Rise  of  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, 179,  180 

Demons,  15 

Denmark,  219 

Department  of  Agriculture,  219, 
221 

Dermot,  King  of  Leinster,  34; 
flees  to  Henry  II,  34;  assisted 
by  Norman-Welsh  adventurers 
returns  to  Ireland,  36;  death  of, 
36 

Desmond,  Thomas  Fitzgerald,  Earl 
of,  leader  of  the  Fitzgeralds,  70 ; 
estates  of  confiscated,  71 

Devlin,  Joseph,  on  martial  law  in 
Ireland,  423;  on  conscription  in 
Ireland,  431,  432;  suggests  that 
the  conscription  law  be  not  rec- 
ognized, 434 

Devolution,  454 

Dialects,  of  the  Irish  Language, 
346 

Dillon,  John,  on  punishment  of  the 
Irish  rebels,  383,  384;  on  mili- 
tary rule  in  Ireland,  402";  be- 
comes leader  of  the  Nationalists, 
416;  on  conscription  in  Ireland, 
431 ;  on  the  position  of  the  Na- 
;  tionalist  Party,  462;  defeated  by 
Professor  De  Valera,  467 

Dinant,  383  , 

Discrimination,  religious,  against 
the  Irish  Catholics,  85;  civil,  86, 
87;  economic,  against  Irish  in-- 
dustry,  92;  against  Irish  com- 
merce, 93;  alleged,  against  Ro- 
man Catholics  concerning  ap- 
pointments to  offices,  281 

Disestablishment  of  the  Church  of 


Ireland,     181     ff.;     controversy 
about,    184,    185;    bill    for,    185; 
act  for  passed,  186;  terms  of  act 
for,  186,  187;  effects  of,  187 
Disloyalty,  assertions  about,  289 
Dissenters,  Irish,  freed  from  sacra- 
mental test,  98 
District  Councils,  212 
Donation  of  Constantine,  34 
Donegal,  a  legend  of,  328 
Drama,  of  the  Irish  Literary  Re- 
vival, 337  ff. 

Drogheda,  parliament  at,  59;  mas- 
sacre at,  77 
Druids,  in  Ireland,  15 
Dublin,  Archbishop  of,  465 
Dublin,  Danish  stronghold   at,  27; 
battle  of  Clontarf  near,  29;  seat 
of    English    government    in    Ire- 
land,   43;    decay    of,    118;    civil 
government  of,  275;  street-names 
in,  342;  insurrection  in,  375  ff. ; 
condition  of  workingmen  in,  392; 
syndicalism  in,  392 
Dublin,  University  of,  465 
Dublin  Castle,  seat  of  government 
power,  89;  unsuccessful  attempt 
on,  375 

Duffy,  Sir  Charles  Gavan,  132 
Dunraven,        Windham        Thomas 
Wyndham-Quin,  Earl  of,  on  the 
destruction  of  Ireland,  56 
Dunraven  Treaty,  208 
Dunstan,  23 

Durham,    John    George    Lambton, 
Earl  of,  176 


Earls,  Irish,  flight  of,  73 

Eas.ter  Rebellion,  see  Rebellion  of 
1916 

Education,  Irish,  control  of  by  re- 
ligious orders,  299,  300 

Edward  I,  neglects  Ireland,  42; 
conquers  Wales,  107;  attempts 
the  conquest  of  Scotland,  107 

Edward  III,  Ireland  in  the  time  of, 


487 


46;  England  and  Ireland  in  the 
reign  of,  49 

Edward  VI,  Ireland  in  the  reign 
of,  69 

Edward  VII,  visit  of  to  Dublin, 
355 

Egbert  of  Wessex,  29 

Egypt,  177 

Election,  General,  of  1918,  in 
Great  Britain,  463,  464;  in  Ire- 
land, 464,  465 

Elizabeth,  Irish  church  regulated 
by,  65;  Ireland  in  the  reign  of, 
70-73;  interest  of  in  the  Gaelic 
language,  316 

Emigrants,  Irish,  hatred  of  for 
England,  141 

Emigration,  from  Ireland,  in  the 
seventeenth  century  to  Spain, 
87;  in  the  eighteenth  century  to 
France,  87;  to  America,  87; 
after  the  Great  Famine,  140; 
horrors  attendant  on,  141;  recent 
causes  of,  143 

Emmet,  Robert,  119 

Encumbered  Estates  Act,  149 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  442 

Enfranchising  Act  of  1793,  allows 
Catholics  to  vote,  101,  114 

England,  gets  claim  to  Ireland,  32- 
35;  hold  of  upon  Ireland  weak- 
ens, 44;  power  of  in  Ireland 
wanes  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
53,  .54;  desires  complete  control 
of  Ireland,  68;  conditions  in  in 
earlier  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  147,  148;  contribution 
of  to  civilization,  163  ff.,  171  ff.; 
development  of,  163  ff. ;  condi- 
tions in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  165;  gov- 
ernment of  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  165;  condi- 
tion of  people  in,  166,  167;  causes 
of  the  commercial  and  industrial 
greatness  of,  169;  failure  of  in 
Ireland,  170,  174 


English  Law,  in  Ireland,  only  for 
English  colonists,  41;  not  ex- 
tended to  the  Irish,  52;  Sir  John 
Davies  on,  52,  53;  extended  over 
Ireland,  74;  effect  of  upon  the 
natives,  75 

"An  Englishman's  Home,"  363 

Englishmen,  attitude  of  towards 
Americans,  439 

Enniskillen,  261,  295 

Episcopalians,  in  Ireland,  hold  the 
power,  88 

Eric,  or  Fine,  13 

Erin,  origin  of  the  name,  3 

Ervine,  St.  John  G.,  on  the  agri- 
cultural renaissance  in  Ireland, 
216;  on  the  new  split  in  Irland, 
223 

Estates  Commissioners,  208 

Esther  Waters,  322 

Eulogies,  330 

Evictions,  198 

Exchequer,  Irish,  consolidated  with 
the  British,  119 

Excise,  413 

Exclusion,  of  Part  of  Ulster,  pro- 
posed, 262,  308;  opposed  by  Na- 
tionalists, 263,  308;  difficulties 
connected  with,  307,  308;  of 
Unionist  Counties,  400 

Expropriation,  of  Landlords,  de- 
manded, 207 

F's,  The  Three,  199 

Fairies,  belief  in,  17 

Famine,  The  Great,  causes  of,  137, 
138;  feeling  in  England  about, 
139;  landlords  ruined  by,  139 

Famines,  in  Ireland,  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  84;  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  135,  136  If. 

Federalism,  suggested  by  Joseph 
Chamberlain,  262;  by  Winston 
Churchill,  262;  advantages  of, 
452,  453 

Federation,  see  Federalism 

Fenians,  beginning  of  the  organi- 


488 


INDEX 


zation  of,  151 ;  outrages  by,  202, 
247,  248 

Fenian  Cycle  of  Prose  Romances, 
327,  328 

Fenianism,  character  of,  152;  com- 
ments on,  153,  154;  effects  of, 
154,  155 

Fergus,  324 

Ferguson,  Sir  Samuel,  poem  of 
cited,  12,  13;  on  the  story  of 
Deirdre,  326;  renders  Irish 
pieces  into  English,  334 

Fes,  or  Convention,  at  Tara,  14 

Fianna,  327 

Fianna  Boys,  organized,  361 ;  oath 
of  loyalty  of,  361 ;  activities  of, 
362 

Fill,  Members  of  the  Professional 
Literary  Caste,  329 

Finances,  Irish,  after  the  Union, 
118;  re-arranged  by  Gladstone, 
144 

Financial  Commission  of  1896,  re- 
port of,  145;  comments  upon, 
145 

Fion,  327,  328 

Fitzgerald,  Gerald,  Earl  of  Kil- 
dare,  60,  61 

Fitzgeralds,  70 

Fitzgibbon,  John,  Earl  of  Clare, 
101;  on  the  advantages  of  the 
Union,  106;  on  Ireland's  desire 
to  rebel,  370 

Fitzwilliam,  William  Wentworth, 
second  Earl  Fitzwilliam,  favors 
admitting  Roman  Catholics  to 
the  Irish  parliament,  103;  re- 
called from  Ireland,  103 

Fiume,  467 

Flaith,  or  Irish  Chieftain,  9 

Folk-lore,  Irish,  use  of  by  modern 
writers,  336,  337 

Ford,  Patrick,  on  the  British  Em- 
pire, 159 

Forus  Feasa  ar  Eirinn,  332 

Fox,  Charles  James,  on  the  dis- 
turbed condition  of  Ireland,  197 


France,  emigration  of  Irishmen  to, 
87;  conditions  in  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries, 
168;  contribution  of  to  civiliza- 
tion, 171;  diminished  power  of 
priests  in,  281 

Franchise,  in  Ireland,  restricted  to 
Protestants,  86;  Catholics  ad- 
mitted to,  99;  parliamentary, 
considered  as  property  in  Eng- 
land and  in  Ireland,  111;  older 
ideas  about,  124;  much  restricted 
in  England  and  in  Ireland,  148, 
149;  extended,  149,  178,  179 

Franco-Prussian  War,  140 

Freeholders,  in  England  and  in 
Ireland,  124,  125 

French,  invade  Ireland,  67;  at- 
tempt invasions  of  Ireland,  104 

French  Revolution,  effects  of  in 
Ireland,  102 

Fudirs,  or  Unfree  Irish,  62 

Fuentes  d'Onoro 

Fusion,  of  Danes  with  the  Irish, 
30;  of  Anglo-Normans  with  the 
Irish,  44-46;  causes  of,  45;  con- 
tinuance of  tendency  towards, 
49;  of  races,  prevented  by  the 
Statute  of  Kilkenny  and  other 
laws,  47,  48;  opposed  by  the 
English  government,  52;  in  the 
time  of  Henry  VII,  59 

Gaelic  Language,  316,  317;  grad- 
ually abandoned  by  the  Irish, 
317-319;  apparently  dying  out, 
319;  nearing  extinction,  339;  ef- 
forts to  preserve  and  revive, 
339,  340;  teaching  of  in  schools, 
341;  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
wider  adoption  of,  343-347; 
character  of,  343,  344;  uniform- 
ity in  not  yet  attained,  346 

Gaelic  League,  founding  of,  340; 
study  of  Irish  stimulated  by, 
341 ;  makes  possible  the  work  of 
Sinn  Fein,  343 


INDEX 


489 


Gaelic  Literature,  old  Irish  period 
of,  323;  middle  period  of,  323- 
330;  modern  period  of,  330-334; 
decline  of,  333,  334;  revival  of 
under  the  impulse  of  the  Gaelic 
League,  342;  character  of,  343 

Gaelic  Union,  339 

Gaels,  tribal  organization  of,  8; 
religion  of  before  Christianity, 
14  if. 

"The  Gaol  Gate,"  338 

Garvin,  J.  L.,  on  the  desirableness 
of  settling  the  Irish  question, 
201 

Gavelkind,  11;  abolished  in  Ire- 
land, 75 

Gentry,  Catholic,  debarred  from 
political  offices  in  Ireland,  125 

Geographical  Position  of  Ireland, 
449,  450 

George  III,  prevents  Catholic 
emancipation,  114 

George  V,  visit  of  to  Ireland,  357 

Geraldines,  highly  regarded  by  the 
Irish,  45 

Geraldines,  of  Kildare,  nearly  ex- 
terminated, 61 

German  Writers,  on  Ireland,  213 

Germans,  Ireland  not  reached  by 
invasions  of,  5;  contributions  of 
to  civilization,  171 ;  assistance  of 
hoped  for  by  some  Irishmen, 
283;  little  assistance  from  in  the 
Irish  Rebellion,  378;  small  part 
of  in  causing  the  Rebellion,  394; 
believe  civil  war  in  Ireland  im- 
minent, 397 

Germany,  conditions  in  in  the  sev- 
enteenth and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries, 168;  great  success  of  in  the 
Great  War,  370;  prepares  for  a 
great  stroke  to  decide  the  war, 
427;  begins  a  terrible  offensive, 
429;  progress  and  success  of  the 
offensive  of,  436;  dangerous 
propaganda  from,  455 

Gladstone,    William    Ewart,    rear- 


ranges Irish  taxation,  144;  ef- 
fects disestablishment  of  the 
Church  of  Ireland,  184;  comes  to 
favor  Home  Rule,  248;  intro- 
duces bill  for,  249;  introduces 
second  Home  Rule  bill,  253; 
passes  from  public  life,  254 

Glastonbury,  23 

Glosses,  323 

Goblins,  belief  in,  17 

"Gods  and  Fighting  Men,"  338 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  321 

Gombeen-men,  224 

Gonsalvi,  Cardinal,  282 

Government  of  Ireland,  in  the 
tribal  period,  8,  9;  after  Henry 
II,  40;  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 89-91;  in  the  period  of 
Grattan's  Parliament,  100;  in  re- 
cent times,  227  ff. ;  alleged  evil 
character  of,  268-270 

Graft,  under  Home  Rule,  prophe- 
sied, 273 

Grand  Juries,  Irish  local  govern- 
ment formerly  controlled  by, 
240 

Grattan,  Henry,  career  of,  97; 
proclaims  the  independence  of 
the  Irish  parliament,  98;  desires 
friendship  with  Great  Britain, 
99;  works  for  Catholic  emanci- 
pation, 121 

Grattan's  Parliament  (1782-1800), 
98  ff. 

Great  Britain,  dangerous  position 
of  in  1780,  9.5;  character  of  the 
people  of,  177,  178;  extension  of 
the  franchise  in,  178-180;  growth 
of  democracy  in,  179,  180;  cab- 
inet government  in,  229;  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Great  War,  349, 
350;  prepares  to  enforce  con- 
scription in  Ireland,  435;  rela- 
tions of  with  the  United  States, 
439  ff. 

Greek  Language,  study  of  in  Ire- 
and,  22;  continued  study  of,  319 


490 


INDEX 


Greek  Writers,  Ireland  called 
lernis  or  lerne  by,  4 

Green,  Alice  Stopford,  Mrs.  J.  R., 
an  exponent  of  Irish  nationalist 
writing,  6 ;  on  early  Irish  society, 
8;  on  the  work  of  the  Irish  mis- 
sionaries, 23 

Gregory,  Lady,  330;  place  of  in 
the  Irish  Literary  Revival,  337, 
338 

Grey,  Charles,  Earl,  assisted  by 
O'Connell,  127 

Grey,  Edward,  Earl,  on  the  neces- 
sity of  settling  the  Irish  ques- 
tion, 291,  438;  approves  of  fed- 
eralism, 453 

Guild  Socialism,  220 


Habeas  Corpus,  172 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  412 

Harp,  25 

Hartingdon,  Spencer  Compton 
Cavendish,  Marquis  of,  later 
Duke  of  Devonshire,  opposes 
Home  Rule,  250 

Hayburning,  278 

Henderson,  Arthur,  on  conscrip- 
tion in  Ireland,  431 ;  in  the  elec- 
tion of  1918,  464 

Henry  II,  empire  of,  32;  said  to 
have  sent  emissary  to  Pope  about 
Ireland,  33;  Ireland  granted  to, 
33;  receives  Dermot,  34;  gives 
Dermot  letters  patent,  36;  goes 
to  Ireland,  37;  regulates  affairs 
in  Ireland,  37;  leaves  Ireland 
for  greater  tasks,  38 

Henry  III,  Ireland  during  the 
reign  of,  42 

Henry  IV,  Ireland  in  the  time  of, 
49 

Henry  V,  Ireland  in  the  time  of, 
49 

Henry  VI,  Ireland  in  the  time  of, 
49 

Henry  VII,  work  of  in  England, 


58;  Ireland  at  the  beginning  of 
the  reign  of,  59 

Henry  VIII,  policy  of  in  Ireland, 
61 ;  declared  supreme  head  of  the 
church  in  Ireland,  61;  declared 
king  of  Ireland,  62;  general  sub- 
mission to,  62;  wins  the  Irish 
chiefs,  62;  character  of  the  work 
of  in  Ireland,  63;  seizes  lands  of 
absentee  landlords  in  Ireland, 
84;  Wales  incorporated  with 
England  in  the  reign  of,  107 

Heptarchy,  43 

Hides,  Irish,  excluded  from  the 
English  market,  92 

Highlands,  Scottish,  finally  recon- 
ciled to  the  Union  with  Eng- 
land, 113 

Home  Government  Association  of 
Ireland,  244 

Home  Rule,  Irish,  general  com- 
ments upon,  235-237,  239;  chief 
argument  for,  237;  efforts  to  ob- 
tain, 242  ff.;  Mr.  Asquith  on 
continued  demand  for,  242;  be- 
ginning of  movement  to  obtain, 
243,  244;  work  of  Butt  and  Par- 
nell  for,  244-246;  halted  by 
Fenian  outrages,  248;  party, 
split  in,  252;  further  progress  of 
movement  for,  252;  supported 
by  Gladstone,  248,  249;  first  bill 
for,  249;  struggle  over,  250;  de- 
feated, 251 ;  further  progress  of 
movement  for,  252;  second  bill 
for,  253;  defeat  of,  254;  Liberals 
engage  to  support,  256;  begin- 
ning of  the  third  attempt  to 
grant,  257;  third  bill  for,  258, 
259;  rejected  by  the  Lords,  259; 
passed  again  by  the  Commons 
and  again  rejected  by  the  Lords, 
262;  a  third  time  passed  by  the 
Commons,  263;  the  foundation  of 
the  British  Empire,  266;  not  sat- 
isfactory to  the  new  Irish  na- 
tionalism, 266;  arguments  about, 


INDEX 


491 


266  ff.;  character  of  arguments 
about,  267;  method  of  passing, 
criticised,  271,  272;  alleged  cost 
of,  272,  273;  alleged  not  to  be 
really  desired  by  Irishmen,  275; 
American  support  of,  275;  gen- 
eral demand  for,  275,  276;  "the 
Secret  of  Empire,"  289,  290; 
necessary  for  better  understand- 
ing between  different  English- 
speaking  peoples,  290,  291;  Great 
Britain  willing  to  grant,  310; 
proposals  about  unsatisfactory 
to  Nationalists,  401,  402; 
dropped  by  the  British  govern- 
ment, 415;  reflections  on,  452; 
why  not  given  just  before  the 
War,  454;  why  not  given  during 
the  War,  455,  456;  Ulster  the 
principal  obstacle  to  granting, 
458,  459 

Home  Rule  Act  (1914),  suspended 
for  the  duration  of  the  War, 
350 

Home  Rule  Bill  (1886),  first, 
terms  of,  249;  defeated,  251 

Home  Rule  Bill  (1893),  second, 
terms  of,  253,  254;  defeat  of, 
254 

Home  Rule  Bill  (1912),  third,  in- 
troduction of,  258;  passage  of, 
259-263,  349;  on  religious  dis- 
crimination, 282;  securities  in 
against  separation,  288,  289;  be- 
comes law,  397 

Home  Rule  Federation  of  Great 
Britain,  247 

Home  Rule  League,  244 

Home  Rule  Question,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  War,  396 

Homer,  325 

Hostages,  10 

Huguenots,  in  Ulster,  93 

Hungarians,  passive  resistance  of, 
355 

Hunting-songs,  Irish,  328 

Hyde,   Douglas,    338;    founds    the 


Gaelic   League,   339,   340;    as   a 
writer  in  Gaelic,  342 

Iliad,  325 

Imperial  Conferences,  290 

Income  Tax,  144 

Independents,  work  of,  in  Eng- 
land, 172 

India,  position  of  in  the  British 
Empire,  177;  services  of  Irish 
soldiers  in,  289 

Indian  Corn,  for  relief  during  the 
Great  Famine,  136 

Industrial  Revolution,  effects  of  in 
England  and  in  Scotland,  166, 
167;  draws  Ulster  closer  to 
Great  Britain,  296 

Industry,  Irish,  ruin  of,  92,  93;  de- 
clines as  a  result  of  the  Indus- 
trial Revolution,  117 

Innocent  III,  Pope,  33 

Ireland,  origin  of  the  name,  4; 
ancient,  conditions  in,  8;  ancient 
civilization  of,  3-17;  Christianity 
in,  18-26;  invaded  by  the  Danes, 
26-31;  partial  conquest  of  by 
the  Normans  from  England,  32 
ff . ;  under  the  English  Kings,  32r- 
55;  complete  conquest  of  by 
England,  56  ff.;  wretched  condi- 
tion of  the  people  of  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  81,  82;  govern- 
ment of  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 89;  conditions  in  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  94;  under 
Grattan's  Parliament,  95-105; 
prosperity  of  during  the  period 
of  Grattan's  Parliament,  99;  al- 
leged fictitious  character  of,  99, 
100;  under  the  Union,  106  ff.; 
population  of  in  1800,  114; 
causes  of  decline  of  prosperity 
in  after  1800,  117;  conditions  in 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  115;  population 
of  increases  in  the  early  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  134; 


492 


INDEX 


ravaged  by  the  Great  Famine, 
135  ff.;  conditions  in  in  the 
early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 148;  resources  of,  191; 
character  of  the  land  of,  19-2  \ 
government  of,  221;  objections 
to  the  government  of,  221,  22$, 
231,  232;  comments  upon  the 
government  of,  233,  234;  Gaelic 
language  dying  out  in,  317-319, 
339;  efforts  to  revive  use  of 
Gaelic  in,  339,  340,  341;  Eng- 
lish language  in,  346,  347;  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  War,  349, 
351;  hi  the  first  years  of  the 
War,  371-374;  situation  in  in 
1918,  416 

Irish,  alleged  incapacity  of  for 
self-government,  216;  in  Amer- 
ica, influenced  by  German  prop- 
aganda, 394 

Irish  Agricultural  Organization 
Society,  founded,  218;  develop- 
ment of,  219;  results  from,  219- 
'222;  opposed  by  the  yombeen- 
men,  224 

Irish-Americans,  in  the  Great  War, 
433,  446,  447 ;  influence  the 
United  States  against  England, 
442_444;  in  the  development  of 
the  United  States,  443,  444;  po- 
litical power  of,  444;  hatred  of 
for  England,  445 

Irish-American  Newspapers,  445 

Irish  Brigade,  proposal  to  form, 
398 

Irish  Characters  (Letters),  342 

Irish  Citizen  Army,  376,  390,  393 

Irish  County  Councils  Act  (1898)» 
240,  276 

Irish  Government  Bill  (Home  Rule 
Bill),  of  1886,  terms  of,  249; 
struggle  over,  250;  defeat  of, 
251 

Irish  Land  Stock,  209 

Irish  Literary  Revival,  335  If. 

Irish  Literary  Theater,  336 


Irish  Members,  in  the  parliament 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  8,  112; 
support  liberal  measures,  127; 
rejoice  at  British  defeats,  283, 
289 

Irish  National  Council,  355 

Irish  National  League,  202,  203; 
suppressed  in  most  of  Ireland, 
203 

Irish  Nationality,  attempted  awak- 
ening of  by  Young  Ireland,  334, 
353;  by  the  Gaelic  League,  339- 
341;  by  Sinn  Fein,  340,  352  ff., 
388,  389,  395 

Irish  Question,  necessity  of  proper 
understanding  of,  447 ;  England's 
attitude  towards,  448;  reflections 
on,  448 

Irish  Republic,  proclaimed  in  1916, 
376,  377;  in  1919,  466 

Irish  Republican  Brotherhood,  151, 
355,  364,  376 

Irish  Republican  Party,  466 

Irish  Revival,  writers  of  praise 
Ireland,  6 

Irish  Soldiers,  in  the  service  of 
France,  87;  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, 289 

Irish  Volunteers,  365,  376,  390 

Irishmen,  former  English  opinion 
of,  7;  hostile  to  England,  196, 
197;  part  of  in  the  Great  War, 
424 

Island  Magee  Massacre,  383 

Isle  of  Man,  origin  of  the  name  of, 
16;  fief  of  the  Pope,  33;  self- 
government  in,  290 

Italy,  contribution  of  to  civiliza- 
tion, 171;  diminished  power  of 
the  priests  in,  281 


Jail  Journal,  322 

James  I,  Ireland  in  the  reign  of, 

73 
James    II,    seeks    help    from    the 

Irish,  79;  ruin  of  the  cause  of  in 


INDEX 


493 


Ireland,  80;  Ireland  in  the  time 
of,  295 

Jesuits,  299,  300 

John,  when  Prince,  fails  in  Ire- 
land, 41 ;  when  King,  comes  with 
powerful  army,  41 

John  of  Salisbury,  33 

Johnson,  Samuel,  321 

Judicial  Rents,  201;  reduced  and 
extended,  204 

Jugo-Slavs,  462 

Junto,  101 

Keating,  Geoffrey,  331,  332;  prose 
of  becomes  a  standard  in  Ire- 
land, 346 

Kilkenny,  parliament  at,  47 

Kilkenny,  Statute  of,  47;  Sir  John 
Davies  on,  48;  purpose  and  re- 
sults of,  48,  49 ;  largely  revived 
in  Poyning's  Law,  60 

Kilmainham  Prison,  247 

Kilmainham  Treaty,  247 

Kincora,  329 

"Kincora,"  by  Lady  Gregory,  338 

King  James  Translation  of  the 
Bible,  345 

Kingston,  Richard,  278 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  on  Ulster,  261 

Labor  Movement,  in  Dublin,  392 

Labor  Party,  opposed  to  conscrip- 
tion, 421;  in  the  election  of  1918, 
463,  464 

Labor  Representatives,  in  the  Irish 
Convention,  411 

Laeghaire,  5,  19 

Laissez-faire,  136 

Lancastrian  Dynasty,  Ireland  dur- 
ing the  period  of,  49,  50 

Land,  in  Ireland,  tribal  ownership 
of,  11;  granted  by  Henry  VIII 
to  the  chiefs,  62;  taken  from  the 
natives  by  the  English,  78,  79; 
further  confiscation  of,  80;  after 
1689  mostly  in  the  possession  of 
aliens,  80;  held  mostly  by  Eng- 


lish proprietors,  82;  general  re- 
sults of  legislation  about,  188, 
189;  legislation  about  little 
known  in  the  United  States,  190; 
character  of,  192 

Land  Act  of  1870,  198;  effects  of, 
199 

Land  Act  of  1881,  importance  of, 
200;  terms  of,  201 

Land  Laws,  Unionist  comments 
upon,  274 

Land  League,  founded,  200;  im- 
portance of,  200;  suppressed,  202 

Land  Legislation,  continued  by 
Lord  Salisbury,  203;  general  re- 
sults of,  210,  211,  212-215 

"The  Land  of  Heart's  Desire,"  338 

Land  Purchase,  205  if. 

Land  Question,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  115 

Landlords,  power  of  in  Ireland, 
83;  character  of,  83;  political  in- 
fluence of  in  Ireland,  124;  power 
of  largely  destroyed,  125,  126; 
oppose  reform,  129;  ruined  by 
the  Great  Famine,  139;  new 
class  of  follows  passing  of  the 
Encumbered  Estates  Act,  149; 
power  and  position  of,  194;  ex- 
propriation of  demanded,  207 

Language,  in  Ireland,  316  ff. ;  rela 
tion    of    to    national    character, 
320,    321;    uniformity    of,    how 
attained,  344,  345;  uniformity  of 
not  accomplished  in  Ireland,  346 

Larkin,  James,  392 

Latin  Language,  continued  study 
of,  319 

Laudabiliter,  so-called   Bull,  34 

Law,  Andrew  Bonar,  on  the  Irish 
situation,  404,  405;  on  conscrip- 
tion in  Ireland,  431,  432;  on  the 
Irish  Question  and  the  Peace 
Conference,  463;  in  the  election 
of  1918,  463 

Laws  Affecting  Ireland,  how  made, 
232 


494 


INDEX 


League  of  Nations,  467 

Leather,  Irish,  excluded   from  the 

English  market,  92 
Lecky,  William  Edward  Hartpole, 
on  Irish  opposition  to  the  Act  of 
Union,  111;  on  religious  persecu- 
tion in  Europe,  164;  on  the  spirit 
of  tolerance   of   Irish   Catholics, 
280;  as  a  writer,  322 
Lee,  Robert  Edward,  236 
Leix  and  Offaly,  plantation  in,  69 
Leslie,  Shane,  on  Sinn  Fein,  349 
Liberal     Party,     supports     Home 
Rule,    248,    249;    split    by    the 
struggle,    249,    250;    alliance    of 
with  the   Nationalists,   253,  256; 
engages  to  support  Home  Rule, 
256,    257;    more    dependent    on 
Irish  support,  271 
Liberty,  development  of  ideas  of, 

91 

Limerick,   captured    by    the    Eng- 
lish, 80,  295 

Limerick,  Bishop  of,  418 
Linens,  weaving  of  in  Ulster,  92 
Literature,  Anglo-Irish,  321,  322 
Literature,    Celtic,    or    Gaelic,    of 
Ireland,  322  ff. ;  great  mass  of, 
323;    old    Irish    period    of,    323; 
middle  Irish  period  of,  323-330; 
modern   period   of,  330-334;   re- 
vival  of    under    the    impulse    of 
the    Gaelic    League,    342;    char- 
acter of,  343 

Lloyd  George,  David,  255;  under- 
takes to  effect  a  settlement  in 
Ireland,  400;  becomes  prime 
minister,  403;  on  the  Irish  situa- 
tion, 403,  404;  proposes  scheme 
for  settling  the  Irish  Question, 
405;  on  the  Convention,  408; 
makes  appeal,  424;  proposals  of 
for  increasing  the.  army,  430;  in 
the  election  of  1918,  463,  464 
Local  Government,  training  of  the 
Irish  for,  221,  222;  in  England, 
239;  in  Ireland,  240;  reform  of, 


240 ;  results  from,  240,  241 ;  con- 
trolled by  the  Irish,  274 

Logue,  Cardinal  Michael,  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  on  Irish  or- 
ganizations, 277 

Londonderry,  261,  295,  297 

Lords  Justices  of  Ireland,  89 

Lord  Lieutenant,  of  Ireland,  posi- 
tion of,  89;  present  position  of, 
229,  230 

Lords,  House  of,  reverses  O'Con- 
nell's  sentence,  132;  rejects  sec- 
ond Home  Rule  Bill,  254;  op- 
poses reforms,  255;  struggle 
over  the  veto  power  of,  256;  re- 
jects third  Home  Rule  Bill,  259; 
rejects  it  again,  262 

Lorraine,  368 

Lough  Swilly,  456 

Louvain,  383 

Lucy,  Sir  Henry,  283 

Lullabies,  Irish,  328 

Luther,  Martin,  translation  of  the 
Bible  by,  345 

Luxeuil,  23 

Lyric  Poems,  Irish,  328 

McCarthy,  Justin,  252 

McCarthy,  Michael,  300 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington, 
Lord,  on  the  subjection  of  Ire- 
land, 56 

MacDonagh,  Thomas,  382 

McGuire,  J.  K.,  on  Ireland  and  the 
British  Empire,  450 

McHale,  Archbishop,  243 

MacLiac,  329,  331 

MacLir,  Mannanan,  16 

Macpherson,  James,  317,  328 

Magistrates,  Irish,  alleged  charac- 
ter of,  278 

Mahaffy,  John  P.,  406 

Mahan,  Alfred  Thayer,  Admiral, 
on  the  strategic  position  of  Ire- 
land, 67 

Maine,  Sir  Henry  James  Sumner, 
333 


INDEX 


495 


Mainistreach,  Flann,  330 

Manchester  Martyrs,  153 

Manufactures,  Irish,  crushed  by 
England,  92 

Manuscripts,  Old  Irish,  marvel- 
lously illuminated,  24 

Markets,  in  old  Ireland,  14 

de  Markiewicz,  Constance  Gore- 
Booth,  Countess,  career  of,  360 
ff.;  organizes  the  Fianna  Boys, 
361 ;  at  the  performance  of  "An 
Englishman's  Home,"  363 

Marne,  436 

Mary,  Ireland  in  the  reign  of,  70 

Massachusetts,  412,  413 

Matthew,  Father,  leads  the  temper- 
ance movement  in  Ireland,  131 

Maynooth,  Roman  Catholic  college 
at,  133;  grant  to  discontinued, 
186 

Mazzini,  Giuseppe,  132 

Meath,  5 

Medb,  325 

Mercantile  System,  175 

Mercenaries,  in  old  Ireland,  327 

Metal  Work,  in  old  Ireland,  24 

Methuen,  Paul  Sanford,  General, 
defeat  of,  283 

Metropole,  Hotel,  380 

Middle  Ages,  Ireland  at  the  close 
of,  54;  end  of  in  Europe,  56, 
57 

Middle  Europe,  370 

Middle  Irish  Period  of  Ireland's 
Literature,  323-330 

Middlemen,  ruined  by  the  Great 
Famine,  139 

Military  Service  Bill,  431 

Milking-songs,  Irish,  25 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  254 

Missionaries,  Irish,  22  ff.,  30 

Mitchel,  John,  132,  322 

Modern  Period  of  Irish  Literature, 
330-334 

"Molly  Maguires,"  277 

Molyneux,  William,  affirms  the  leg- 
islative independence  of  the  Irish 


parliament,  90;  possible  influ- 
ence of,  443 

Monasteries,  in  old  Ireland,  19,  24 

Mongols,  140 

Montesquieu,  Charles  de  Secondat, 
Baron  de  la  Brede  et  de,  172 

Moonlighting,  278 

Moore,  George,  322,  336 

Moore,  Thomas,  26,  321,  329,  335 

Motu  Proprio  Decree,  279 

Municipal  Corporations,  reform  of 
in  Ireland,  129;  in  England,  129 

The  Mummer's  Wife,  322 

Music,  in  old  Ireland,  25;  col- 
lected, 26 

Naisi,  326 

Naples,  Italian  dialect  in,  344 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  danger  from 
influences  English  attitude  to- 
wards Ireland,  105 

The  Nation,  organ  of  Young  Ire- 
land, 335 

The  Nation  [London],  on  Sinn 
Fein,  462 

National  Council  of  Sinn  Fein, 
364 

National  Union  of  Conservative 
and  Constitutional  Associations, 
285 

National  Volunteers,  364,  365 

Nationalism,  Irish,  enhanced  by 
the  work  of  Gaelic  League,  341 ; 
by  the  work  of  individuals  like 
Padraic  Pearse,  341;  shown  in 
names,  342 

Nationalist  Party,  developed  by 
Butt  and  Parnell,  244  ff. ;  schism 
in,  252;  reunited  under  Red- 
mond, 252 

Nationalist  Writers,  on  the  Union 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
109 

Nationalists,  support  British  Lib- 
erals, 256;  assist  in  passing  the 
Parliament  Bill  of  1911,  257; 
prepare  armed  forces  to  resist 


496 


INDEX 


the  Ulster  Volunteers,  262;  not 
willing  that  Ulster  be  left  out  of 
the  operation  of  Home  Rule, 
263;  alleged  democratic  charac- 
ter of,  268;  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Great  War,  349;  aims  of  un- 
like those  of  Sinn  Fein,  353; 
representatives  of  withdraw 
from  the  House  of  Commons, 
404;  agree  to  the  scheme  for  an 
Irish  Convention,  405;  agree  to 
the  report  of  the  Convention, 
411;  at  the  beginning  of  the 
War,  416;  repudiate  connection 
with  Sinn  Fein,  416;  oppose  con- 
scription in  Ireland,  423,  429; 
under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Dil- 
lon, 430,  431;  oppose  the  con- 
scription bill,  432;  representa- 
tives of  resolve  to  remain  in  Ire- 
land, 434;  position  of  at  the  end 
of  the  War,  462;  great  defeat  of 
in  the  election  of  1918,  464,  465; 
displaced  by  Sinn  Fein,  465 

Nationality,  spirit  of  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  352;  in  Ireland, 
353 

Nationality,  Irish,  not  given  a 
chance  to  evolve  out  of  the 
tribal  stage,  27,  53,  54;  develop- 
ing, 97;  remark  of  Grattan 
about,  98 

Navigation  Acts,  English,  ruin 
Irish  commerce,  93 

Ne  Temere  Decree,  279,  300 

Nelson's  Pillar,  377 

Neolithic  People,  in  Ireland,  4 

New  York,  411,  412 

New  Testament,  translated  into 
Irish,  345 

New  Zealand,  176 

Normans,  conquest  of  England  by, 
31;  good  results  of  conquest  by, 
38;  in  Ireland,  adopt  the  Gaelic 
tongue,  316 

Norman-Welsh  Adventurers,  begin 
the  conquest  of  Ireland,  36; 


cruel    behavior    of,    37;    fail   to 
conquer  Ireland,  39,  40 
Northmen,  27,  28 


O'Brazil,  17 

O'Brien,  William,  helps  to  found 
the  United  Irish  League,  207;  on 
conscription  in  Ireland,  431 

O'Clery,  Michael,  331 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  character  of, 
120,  121;  early  efforts  of,  121; 
revives  the  Catholic  Association, 
121;  power  of,  123;  assists  Earl 
Grey,  127;  begins  agitation  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Union,  128- 
131 ;  condemned  for  conspiracy, 
132;  sentence  of  reversed,  132; 
draws  back  from  extreme  meas- 
ures, 132;  death  of,  142;  on  in- 
terference by  the  Pope  in  Irish 
affairs,  282;  does  not  attempt  to 
revive  Irish  nationalism,  335 

O'Connor,  T.  P.,  resolution  moved 
by,  403;  speech  of,  462 

O'Flainn,  Eochaid,  329 

O'Mahony,  151 

O'Neill,  Shane,  72 

O'Nolan,  Rev.  Gerald,  on  the  des- 
tiny of  Ireland,  18;  on  the  work 
of  the  Catholics  in  Ireland,  279 

O'Shea,  Captain,  251 

Oak  and  Steel  Boys,  120 

Officials,  in  Ireland,  said  to  be  too 
numerous,  232 

Ogham  Writing,  origin  of,  6;  char- 
acter of  compositions  in,  323 

Oisin,  327 

Old  Age  Pension  Act,  288 

Old  Irish  Period  of  Ireland's  Lit- 
erature, 323 

Orange  Society,  founded,  104 

Ormond,  Earl  of,  translates  proc- 
lamation into  Irish,  45 

Ossianic  Cycle  of  Prose  Romances, 
327,  328 

Ossianic  Poems,  328 


INDEX 


497 


Palaeolithic  People,  in  Ireland,  4 

Palatine  Counties,  in  Ireland,  43; 
large  extent  of,  44 

Pale,  Part  of  Ireland  under  Eng- 
lish Authority,  44;  becomes 
smaller,  46,  54;  in  the  time  of 
Henry  VII,  59 

Papists,  in  Ireland,  discrimination 
against,  85-87 

Paraguay,  299 

Parliament  Act  of  1911,  186,  257 

Parliament,  English,  arranges  the 
Cromwellian  Settlement,  77,  78; 
discriminates  against  the  Irish 
Catholics,  85,  R6 

Parliament,  British,  maintains  tyr- 
anny in  Ireland,  91;  economic 
discriminations  by  against  Irish 
industry,  92;  against  Irish  com- 
merce, 93;  composition  of,  100 

Parliament,  Irish,  origin  of,  60; 
asserts  independence,  60;  made 
subordinate  by  Poyning's  Law, 
60;  declares  Henry  VIII  King1 
of  Ireland,  62;  of  1689,  79;  work 
of  undone,  80;  position  of  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  90;  corrup- 
tion in,  91 ;  freed  from  control 
of  the  British  privy  council,  98; 
composition  of,  101;  period  of 
the  independence  of,  104;  advan- 
tages of,  269,  270;  proposed  com- 
position of,  413 

Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  support- 
ed by  some  of  the  Fenians,  200; 
declaration  by,  200;  founds  the 
Irish  National  League,  202; 
character  of,  245;  obstructive 
tactics  of  in  parliament,  246;  be- 
comes leader  of  the  Home  Rule 
movement,  246;  head  of  the  Land 
League,  247;  in  Kilmainham 
Prison,  247;  makes  agreement 
with  Gladstone,  247;  all-power- 
ful among  the  Irish,  248;  during 
the  struggle  over  the  first  Home 
Rule  Bill,  250;  attacked  by  the 


London  Times,  251;  sued  by 
Captain  O'Shea,  251;  downfall 
of,  252;  testimonial  to,  282;  in- 
scription on  the  monument  to, 
284 

Paul  IV,  Pope,  gives  English 
sovereigns  the  title  of  King  of 
Ireland,  35 

Paul-Dubois,  Louis,  on  the  effects 
of  the  Great  Famine,  134 

Peace  Conference,  462,  463 

Pearse,  Padraic,  on  the  destiny  of 
the  Gael,  7;  compared  with  Em- 
met, 119;  work  of  in  enhancing 
Irish  nationalism,  341;  as  a 
writer  in  Gaelic,  342;  president 
of  the  Irish  Republic,  376;  re- 
fuses to  assist  in  establishing 
the  Boy  Scouts  in  Ireland,  361; 
surrender  of,  381;  death  of,  382, 
383;  on  the  Irish  rebels,  389 

Peasants,  Irish,  miserable  condi- 
tion of  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 84 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  procures  repeal 
of  the  Corn  Laws,  135;  on  the 
"coffin-ships,"  141 

Penal  Code,  against  Roman  Catho- 
lics, 85^87;  largely  swept  away, 
99;  completely  done  away  with, 
126 

Pennsylvania,  412 

Pensions,  on  Irish  revenues,  90 

Persecution,  Religious,  in  Ireland, 
86;  character  of,  86,  87 

Pestilence,  after  the  Great  Famine, 
137 

Petty,  Sir  William,  on  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Irish,  81 ;  advocates 
union  of  Ireland  with  England, 
108;  account  of  Ireland  by, 
193 

Phenecians,  Ireland  known  to,  4 

Philadelphia,  Irish-American  Con- 
vention in,  468 

Philip  II,  aids  the  Irish  rebels,  66 

Philippine  Islands,  177 


498 


INDEX 


Phoenix  Clubs,  151 

Phoenix  Park  Murders,  202,  247; 
Parnell  accused  of  complicity  in, 
251 

Pictet,  Adolphe,  317 

Pitch-caps,  104 

Pitt,  William,  problem  confronting 
in  1798,  108;  views  of  about 
Ireland,  110;  wishes  Roman 
Catholics  to  be  allowed  to  share 
in  the  government  of  Ireland, 
110;  believes  a  union  with  Great 
Britain  good  for  Ireland,  110; 
favors  complete  emancipation  of 
Roman  Catholics,  114;  yields  to 
George  III,  114 

"Plan  of  Campaign,"  203 

Plantations,  begun  in  Ireland,  69; 
in  America,  69,  74;  resistance  of 
the  Irish  to,  70;  in  Munster  a 
failure,  72;  formed  in  Ulster, 
73;  much  of  Ulster,  Munster, 
and  Leinster  laid  out  in,  73,  74; 
proposed  for  Connaught,  74; 
success  of  in  Ireland,  74 

Plantation  of  Ulster,  founded,  73, 
294 

"The  Playboy  of  the  Western 
World,"  339 

Plow-whistles,  25 

Plunkett,  Sir  Horace,  studies  agri- 
culture, 216,  217;  advocates  co- 
operation in  Ireland,  217;  diffi- 
culties confronting,  218;  success 
of,  218;  founds  the  I.  A.  O.  S., 
218;  opposed  by  the  politicians, 
222;  estimate  of  the  work  of, 
225;  on  Ulster  and  Ireland,  397; 
chairman  of  the  Irish  Conven- 
tion, 406;  on  the  work  of  the 
Convention,  411,  412 

Plunkett,  Joseph,  377 

Poland,  Prussian,  58,  368 

Politics,  Irish,  recent  changes  in 
the  spirit  of,  223 

Poor  Law  of  1838,  129 

Poor  Law  Unions,  211 


Popes,  ambition  of,  33;  grant  Ire- 
land as  a  feudal  dependency,  35; 
interference  of  in  Irish  politics, 
282 

Population,  of  Ireland,  increase  of, 
134;  declines  after  the  Great 
Famine,  140,  143 

Portugal,  281 

Posen,  451 

Post  Office,  375,  377;  destruction 
of,  380 

Potato,  principal  food  of  the  Irish 
peasants,  135;  crop  fails,  135, 
203 

Poynings,  Sir  Edward,  lord  dep- 
uty of  Ireland,  59;  causes  Poyn- 
ing's  Law  to  be  passed,  59 

Poyning's  Law,  59,  60 

Presbyterians,  in  Ireland,  not  al- 
lowed to  hold  office,  88;  of  Uls- 
ter, radicalism  among,  103;  fear 
the  Roman  Catholics,  298 

Priests,  Irish,  under  English  dom- 
ination, 122;  great  influence  of 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  122;  assist 
O'Connell,  123,  125;  assist  in  the 
movement  for  repeal,  131 ;  power 
of,  279 ;  oppose  conscription,  431, 
434,  461 

Pritchard,  James,  317 

Private  Ownership,  in  tribal  Ire- 
land, 11 

Privy  Council,  English,  controls 
the  Irish  parliament,  90 

Prosperity,  during  the  period  of 
Grattan's  Parliament,  99,  100; 
causes  of  the  decline  of  after  the 
Union,  117 

Protestants,  in  Ireland,  the  upper 
class,  82;  organize  troops  to  de- 
fend Ireland,  96 

Provencal,  344 

Provisions,  salted,  not  allowed  to 
be  sent  from  Ireland  to  the  Eng- 
lish market,  92 

Ptolemy,  Ireland  described  by,  4 


INDEX 


499 


Puritans,  in  the  English  Civil 
Wars,  172 

Quebec,  Catholics  and  Protestants 
in,  301,  302;  conscription  in, 
428,  434,  461 

Queenstown,  434,  456 

Rackrents,  84 

Rawleigh,  Sir  Walter,  fights 
against  Spanish  invaders  of  Ire- 
land, 67;  gets  estate  in  Ireland, 
72 

Raymond,  a  Xorman  Adventurer, 
37 

Rebellion  of  1641,  76;  effect  of  in 
England,  76 

Rebellion  of  1798,  104 

Rebellion  of  1803,  119 

Rebellion  of  1916,  375  ff.;  meas- 
ures to  suppress,  378;  suppres- 
sion of,  378-381;  destruction 
caused  by,  381 ;  feeling  aroused 
by,  381 ;  stern  measures  of  the 
government  following,  382,  383; 
causes  of,  390  ff. 

Recruiting,  opposed  by  Sinn  Fein, 
356,  372;  opposed  by  the  Fianna 
Boys,  362 

Redmond,  John,  on  the  changing 
ownership  of  land  in  Ireland, 
188;  refuses  after  a  while  to  sup- 
port Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  222; 
becomes  leader  of  the  Home 
Rule  party,  252;  becomes  more 
conservative,  255;  on  the  third 
Home  Rule  Bill,  259;  wishes  to 
satisfy  Ulster,  262,  263;  alleged 
dictatorship  of,  271 ;  cartoon 
about,  283;  speeches  of  in  Amer- 
ica, 284;  on  separation  from 
Great  Britain,  288;  wishes  to 
persuade  Unionists  of  Ulster, 
309;  generous  loyalty  of  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  Great  War,  350; 
on  the  defence  of  Ireland,  365; 
on  the  Irish  Rebellion,  378,  382; 


represents  an  older  political  or- 
der, 391,  392;  on  Ireland's  de- 
sire for  Home  Rule,  396;  on 
Irish  loyalty,  398 ;  wishes  to  form 
an  Irish  brigade,  398;  declines  a 
place  in  the  cabinet,  398 ;  on  Ire- 
land and  the  War,  399;  declines 
to  continue  negotiations  about 
Home  Rule,  402;  appeals  to 
England,  402;  withdraws  from 
the  House  of  Commons,  404;  re- 
jects Mr.  Lloyd  George's  scheme 
for  settling  the  Irish  difficulty, 
405;  on  the  situation  in  Ireland, 
407;  on  conscription  in  Ireland, 
422,  423;  death  of,  430 

Redmond,  Captain  William,  465 

Redmond,  Major  W.  H.  K.,  appeal 
made  by,  403;  death  of,  430 

Referendum,  asked  for  on  Home 
Rule,  262 

Reform  Law,  Electoral,  of  1832, 
178;  of  1867,  179;  of  1884,  179; 
of  1918,  179;  of  1884,  increases 
the  power  of  Parnell,  248 

Reformation,  in  Europe,  57;  in 
England,  64;  in  Ireland,  64;  ef- 
fects great  barrier  between  peo- 
ples in  Ireland,  64,  65;  causes 
for  failure  of  in  Ireland,  65; 
German,  171 

Reyium  Donum,  186 

Relief  Works,  136 

Religion,  in  old  Ireland,  14  ff. 

Renaissance,  in  early  Christian  Ire- 
land, 22;  in  western  Europe,  57 

Rents,  in  Ireland,  rise  of,  115, 
199;  reduced,  201 

Repeal  of  the  Union,  urged  by 
O'Connell,  131 

Republic,  Irish,  planned  (1865), 
152;  attempted  establishment  of 
(1916),  376,  377;  (1919),  466 

Restoration,  of  Charles  II,  effect 
of  in  Ireland,  79 

Retaliation,  Law  of,  in  old  Ireland, 
12 


500 


INDEX 


zu  Reventlow,  Count  Ernst,  opin- 
ions of  about  England  and  the 
British  Empire,  161,  162 

Revolution,  American,  Ireland  dur- 
ing, 96;  causes  of,  174r-176;  later 
effects  of,  176 

Revolution  of  1688,  effects  of  in 
Ireland,  80 

Revolution  of  1848,  104,  146 

Rhode  Island,  411,  413 

Ri,  or  King,  in  old  Ireland,  9 

Richard  II,  on  the  classes  of  peo- 
ple in  Ireland,  49 

Richard,  Duke  of  York,  in  Ire- 
land, 50 

"Riders  to  the  Sea,"  339 

Road-fever,  137 

Robert  Guiscard,  33 

Roman  Catholics,  in  Ireland,  many 
disabilities  upon  removed,  99; 
admitted  to  the  franchise,  99; 
not  allowed  to  sit  in  parliament, 
101;  barbarously  treated,  104; 
the  great  majority  of  the  Irish 
people  in  1800,  114;  political 
emancipation  promised  to  but 
not  given  to,  114;  emancipation 
of,  126 

Romances,  Irish,  Medieval,  324 
ff.;  Ulster  Cycle  of,  324;  Fenian 
or  Ossianic  Cycle  of,  327,  328 

Rome  Rule,  281,  297 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  on  the  neces- 
sity of  settling  the  Irish  Ques- 
tion, 291 

Rossa,  O'Donovan,  151 

Royal  Commission,  on  the  Irish 
Rebellion,  report  of,  373 

Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  356 

Rumania,  403 

Rural  Laborers,  211 

Russell,  George  W.  ("A.  E."),  as- 
sists Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  218; 
on  future  social  organization, 
220;  place  of  in  the  Irish  Liter- 
ary Revival,  338;  on  the  leaders 
of  the  Irish  Rebellion,  389;  mem- 


ber of  the  Irish  Convention,  406; 
pamphlet  by,  408,  409;  on  "colo- 
nial" Home  Rule,  410 
Russia,  terrorism  in,  152;  defeat 
of  in  the  Great  War,  370;  causes 
of  withdrawal  of  from  the  War, 
426,  427 

Sackville  Street,  Dublin,  380,  381 

St.  Bridget,  sacred  fire  of,  15 

St.  Columba,  goes  to  lona,  22; 
converts  the  Scots  and  the  Picts, 
23 

St.  Columbanus,  spreads  Christian- 
ity in  Burgundy,  23 

St.  Finnen,  21 

St.  Enda's  School,  341 

St.  Patrick,  early  life  of,  18;  con- 
verts the  Irish  to  Christianity, 
19 

St.  Quentin,  429 

St.  Stephen's  Green,  375,  377 

Salisbury,  Robert  Arthur  Talbot 
Gascoyne  Cecil,  Marquis  of,  land 
legislation  continued  by,  203, 
204;  opposes  Home  Rule,  250; 
on  strong  government  in  Ireland, 
254;  on  the  incapacity  of  the 
Irish  for  self-government,  276 

Sarajevo,  264 

Schleswig,  368 

Schools,  in  early  Christian  Ire- 
land, 21 ;  attended  by  many  for- 
eigners, 21 ;  in  present-day  Ire- 
land, Gaelic  taught  in,  341 

Scotch-Irishmen,  settle  in  Ulster, 
73;  many  go  to  America,  92 

Scotland,  origin  of  the  name  of, 
23;  development  of  nationality 
in,  107;  partial  union  of  with 
England  (1603),  107;  complete 
union  of  with  (1707),  107,  108 

Scots,  from  Erin,  plunder  Britain, 
5 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  317,  322 

Secret  Societies,   119,   120 

Seebohm,  Frederick,  333 


INDEX 


501 


Self-determination,  462 

Self-government,  said  not  really  to 
exist  in  Ireland,  232,  238;  solid 
foundation  for  future,  241 

Senchus  Nor,  332,  333 

Separation,  of  Ireland  from  Great 
Britain,  tendency  towards,  105; 
dangers  of,  284,  285;  reflections 
upon,  449 

Servia,  211,  370 

Shannon,  465 

Shaw,  George  Bernard,  on  Castle 
rule,  231 ;  place  of  in  Anglo- 
Irish  literature,  336 

Shelbourne  Hotel,  377 

Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley,  321 

Shires,  part  of  Ireland  divided 
into,  41 

Sidney,  Sir  Henry,  in  Ireland,  70 

Sicily,  Italian  dialect  in,  344 

Silk  Weaving,  in  Ireland,  ruin  of, 
92 

Sinn  Fein,  a  description  of,  349; 
meaning  of,  352;  an  aspect  of 
excessive  nationalism,  352;  aims 
of  different  from  those  of  the 
Nationalists,  353;  purpose  of, 
354,  388;  beginning  of,  355;  de- 
velopment and  growth  of,  255 
ff.;  enlistments  in  the  British 
army  discouraged  by,  356;  advo- 
cates the  independence  of  Ire- 
land, 356;  does  not  desire  Home 
Rule,  357,  358;  unable  to  carry 
elections,  357;  little  attention 
paid  to  by  the  British  authori- 
ties, 358;  characteristic  activities 
of,  359  ff.;  raises  an  armed 
force,  364,  365;  effects  of,  366; 
estimate  of,  366-368 ;  attitude  to- 
wards Germany,  367,  372,  373; 
benefits  from  a  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing after  the  suppression  of  the 
Irish  Rebellion,  385-388;  char- 
acter of  its  leaders,  387,  388; 
attempts  to  revive  Irish  nation- 
ality, 340,  352  ff.,  388,  389,  395; 


prisoners  released  welcomed  in 
Ireland,  406;  continues  its  work, 
407;  revelations  about,  415;  re- 
newed activity  of,  435,  436;  al- 
leged conspiracy  of,  436;  reflec- 
tions upon,  449;  in  the  election 
of  1918,  465;  great  triumph  of, 
465;  task  before,  466;  republic 
proclaimed  by,  466,  468;  tries  to 
get  assistance  from  President 
Wilson,  467;  appeals  to  Ameri- 
can soldiers  in  Ireland,  467;  asks 
that  the  Irish  Republic  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  League  of  Na- 
tions, 467 

Sinn  Fein  Writers,  on  the  Union 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
109 

Skeffington,  Sheehy,  384;  execution 
of,  385;  on  the  Irish  Volunteers, 
390 

Skinnider,  Margaret,  on  the  activi- 
ties of  Sinn  Fein,  363;  on  the 
action  of  the  British  government 
after  the  Irish  Rebellion,  383 

Slave-trade,  between  England  and 
Ireland,  10 

Smith,  Adam,  advocates  a  union 
between  Ireland  and  England, 
108 

Social  System,  in  early  Ireland,  9 

Society  for  the  Preservation  of 
the  Irish  Language,  339 

South  African  Union,  176 

South  African  War,  207 

Spain,  power  of  the  priests  in,  281 

Spaniards,  invited  into  Ireland,  73 

Spenser,  Edmund,  on  the  Irish  cus- 
tom of  compensation  for  in- 
juries, 13;  on  starving  the  Irish, 
71;  gets  an  estate  in  Ireland,  72 

Spinning-songs,  25 

Spirit  Duties,  144 

Squirearchy,  240 

Starvation,  as  a  weapon  in  con- 
quering Ireland,  70 

Steele,  Richard,  321 


502 


INDEX 


Stephens,  James,  151 

Strafford,  Thomas  Wentworth, 
Earl  of,  75,  76 

Strategic  Position  of  Ireland,  with 
respect  to  England,  66,  67;  con- 
siderations about,  284,  285 

Strathclyde,  319 

Stuart  Kings,  turn  to  Ireland  for 
soldiers,  67 

Stuart  Period,  of  English  history, 
58;  contest  between  parliament 
and  king  during,  75 

Submarines,  455,  456;  along  the 
Irish  coast,  457,  458 

Suffragettes,  460 

Swift,  Jonathan,  on  the  Irish  par- 
liament, 91 ;  on  the  Irish  har- 
bors, 93;  place  of  in  Anglo-Irish 
literature,  321 

Syndicalism,  392 

Synge,  John  Millington,  on  the 
story  of  Deirdre,  326;  as  a  dra- 
matist, 338,  339 


Tacitus,  Ireland  in  the  time  of,  4; 
on  the  opinion  of  Agricola 
about,  5 

Tain  Bo  Cuailnge,  323;  account  of, 
324;  content  and  form  of,  325 

Tains,  324-326 

Tanist,  Elected  Ruler  in  Old  Ire- 
land, 9 

Tanistry,  abolished,  75 

Tara,  Seat  of  the  Over-king,  9; 
convention  at,  14;  O'ConnelPs 
great  meeting  at,  131 

Taxation,  in  Ireland,  increases 
after  the  Union,  119;  comments 
on,  119;  increased  by  Gladstone, 
144;  comments  on  alleged  exces- 
siveness  of,  144,  145,  273 

Temperance  Movement,  in  Ireland, 
131 

Tenant  Protection  Societies,  149 

Tenant-Right,  195 

Tenant-Right  Convention,  199 


Tenants,  political  dependence  of 
upon  landlords,  125;  revolt  of, 
125,  126;  stricken  by  great  pes- 
tilence and  famine  in  Ireland, 
135-137;  position  of  in  Ireland 
in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  194,  195;  sad  condition 
of,  196;  assisted  by  land  legisla- 
tion, 198  if. 

Text-books,  441 

Thompson,  Charles,  443 

"The  Three  Sorrows  of  Story-tell, 
ing,"  326 

The  Times  [London],  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  growth  of  Sinn  Fein, 
373 

Tipperary,  434 

Tithe  War,  128 

Tithes,  burdensome  character  of, 
116;  commutation  of,  129 

Tone,  Wolf,  103 

Tories,  obstruct  measures  of  re- 
form, 268;  diminishing  number 
of,  270 

Tralee,  Bishop  of,  on  the  dises- 
tablishment of  the  Irish  Church, 
187 

Treitschke,  Heinrich  von,  on  Eng- 
land and  the  British  Empire, 
161 

Tribal  Law,  12 

Tribal  Obligations,  in  old  Ireland, 
9,  10 

Tribal  Organization,  in  ancient 
Ireland,  8,  9 

Tribal  Ownership  of  Land,  in  old 
Ireland,  11;  in  other  places,  11; 
overthrow  of,  11 

Tribal  Period,  of  English  history, 
26,  28;  of  Irish  history,  29 

Tribal  Spirit,  persistence  of  in  Ire- 
land, 220 

Tribal  Warfare,  in  Ireland,  30 

Tudor  Period,  of  English  History, 
58 

Tympan,  25 

Tyrconnel,  Earl  of,  lands  of  made 


INDEX 


503 


part  of  the  plantation  of  Uls- 
ter, 73 

Tyrone,  Earl  of,  leads  rebellion  in 
Ulster,  73;  lands  of  made  part 
of  the  plantation  of  Ulster,  73 


Ukrainia,  152 

Ulster,  devastation  of,  43;  rebel- 
lion of  O'Neill  in,  72;  largely 
confiscated,  72;  rebellion  of  Ty- 
rone in,  73;  plantation  of  laid 
Out  (1611),  73,  294;  rising  of 
the  Irish  in,  76;  woolen  industry 
of  ruined,  92;  many  Scotch- 
Irishmen  leave,  92;  linen  indus- 
try in,  92;  Huguenot  refugees 
in,  92;  radicalism  among  Pres- 
byterians of,  103;  Presbtyerians 
of  work  with  Catholics  in  sup- 
porting Tenant  Protection  Soci- 
eties, 150;  tenant-right  in,  195; 
Unionists  of  make  powerful  op- 
position to  Home  Rule,  257,  258; 
desire  to  maintain  the  Union, 
259,  260;  Covenant  pledged  in, 
260;  Volunteers  enrolled  in,  261; 
Unionists  of  resolve  to  resist 
Home  Rule,  261;  sympathy  in 
England  for  Unionists  of,  262; 
temporary  exclusion  of  part  of 
proposed,  262;  appeals  of,  263; 
Unionists  of  unwilling  to  com- 
promise, 264;  wrong  to  desert 
Unionists  in,  278;  expected  dis- 
crimination against,  279;  Union- 
ists in  principal  obstacle  to  the 
granting  of  Home  Rule,  292, 
310;  general  account  of,  293  ff.; 
position  of  Protestants  in,  295, 
296;  sometimes  opposed  to  Eng- 
land, 296;  draws  closer  to  Great 
Britain,  296,  297;  religious  fears 
in,  298,  299,  303,  304;  industrial 
and  economic  considerations  in, 
304,  305;  taxation  of,  305;  fear 
of  Home  Rule  government  in, 


306,  307;  population  of  and  re- 
ligious divisions  in,  307,  308;  ex- 
clusion of  Unionist  counties  of 
from  Home  Rule,  400;  continues 
to  be  the  principal  obstacle  to  a 
settlement  of  the  Irish  Question, 
414;  soldiers  from  in  the  Great 
War,  423,  428;  attitude  in  to- 
wards conscription,  429 

Ulster  Question,  general  comments 
on,  309-311 

Ulster  Unionist  Council,  opposes 
Home  Rule,  400 

Ulster  Volunteers,  261,  264 

Undertakers,  settle  English  fami- 
lies in  Ireland,  72;  control  par- 
liamentary representation,  89 

Union,  of  Ireland  with  Great  Brit- 
ain, repeal  of  sought,  131,  132; 
repeal  of  desired,  145;  Act  of, 
regarded  as  a  blessing,  91 ;  de- 
sired by  English  statesmen,  105; 
desired  by  some  Irishmen,  108; 
petitions  for  from  Ireland,  108; 
Irishmen  opposed  to,  110,  111; 
made  possible  by  bribery,  111; 
not  satisfactory  to  Irishmen, 
113;  disruption  of  by  Home  Rule 
predicted,  283 

Union  Defence  League,  308 

Unionist,  origin  of  the  term,  249 

Unionists,  of  Ulster  oppose  Home 
Rule,  400,  401;  constituencies 
controlled  by,  276;  unwilling  to 
compromise  in  the  Convention, 
411;  proposed  protection  for, 
413;  support  conscription,  432; 
in  the  election  of  1918,  464 

Unionists,  Southern,  represented 
in  the  Irish  Convention,  406; 
agree  to  the  report  of  the  Con- 
vention, 411;  proposed  protec- 
tion for,  413;  in  the  election  con- 
test of  1918,  464 

United  Church  of  England  and 
Ireland,  established,  112;  dises- 
tablished, 186,  187 


504 


INDEX 


United  Irish  League,  founded,  207 ; 
fear  of,  277,  306 

United  Irishmen,  Society  of 
(1791),  103;  seeks  aid  from 
France,  104 

United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  established,  112 

United  States,  of  America,  emigra- 
tion of  Irishmen  to,  87,  140; 
Irishmen  in  support  the  Fenians, 
151;  advantages  from  the  geo- 
graphical position  of,  170; 
separation  and  secession  in,  236; 
enters  the  Great  War,  427; 
opinion  in  concerning  Ireland, 
Great  Britain,  and  the  War,  433; 
relations  of  with  Great  Britain, 
439  ff. 

Usnech,  326 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of,  186 

de  Valera,  Professor  Eamonn, 
407;  proclaimed  president  of  the 
Irish  Republic,  467 

Venetia,  344 

:Veuillot,  Louis,  on  religious  tolera- 
tion, 297,  298 

Viceroy,  English,  in  Ireland,  has 
little  power  during  the  Anglo- 
Norman  period,  43 

Victoria,  289 

Vimy,  429 

Virginia,  412,  413 

Voltaire,  Francois  Marie  Arouet, 
172 

Voluntary  Service,  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, 420,  421;  in  Ireland,  428 

Wales,  conquered  by  Edward  I, 
107;  incorporated  with  England 
under  Henry  VIII,  107 

Walker,  Rev.  George,  297 

"Walsh's  Fort,"  278 

"The  Wanderings  of  Oisin,"  336 

War-dogs,  325 

Washington,  George,  236 

"The  Well  of  the  Saints,"  339 


Wellington,  Arthur  Wellesley, 
Duke  of,  favors  Catholic  eman- 
cipation, 125,  126 

Wesley,  John,  on  the  kindliness  of 
Irish  Catholics,  280 

Whigs,  attitude  of  towards  Ire- 
land, 128 

Whitby,  Synod  of,  21 

Whiteboys,  120 

Wilde,  Oscar,  322,  336 

William  of  Normandy,  33 

William,  Prince  of  Orange  and 
King  of  England,  supporters  of 
get  lands  in  Ireland,  80;  gift  of 
to  Irish  Presbyterians,  186 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  462;  how  re- 
garded in  Ireland,  467 

Woman's  Suffrage,  460 

Women,  in  England,  training  of 
for  a  part  in  the  government, 
241;  in  ancient  Ireland,  position 
of,  325 

Wool,  Irish,  debarred  from  Eng- 
land, 92 

Woolens,  Irish,  export  of  forbid- 
den by  the  English  parliament, 
92 

Writing,  introduction  of  into  Ire- 
land, 6 

Wyndham  Act,  208 

Yeats,  WiUiam  Butler,  on  the 
story  of  Deidre,  326;  poetical 
work  of,  336;  as  a  dramatist,  338 

York,  House  of,  supported  by 
English  colonists  in  Ireland,  59 

Young,  Arthur,  on  the  power  of 
the  landlords  in  Ireland,  83;  on 
the  Irish  parliament,  91 

Young  Ireland,  Society  of,  found- 
ed, 132;  influenced  by  the  Revo- 
lution of  1848,  146;  revival  of 
Irish  nationality  attempted  by, 
335 

Young  Italy,  132 

Ypres,  381,  429,  432 

Zeuss,  Kaspar,  6,  317 


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